KARACHI, Nov 14: Various parts of the city remained in grip of an acute shortage of water on Thursday. Fasting residents, mostly women, of the water-starved localities were seen strolling from one locality to the other in search of water at least for drinking purpose.
The worst-hit areas included Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Surjani, North Karachi, Bahadur Yar Jung Society, Adamjee Nagar, Clifton, Lyari, Old City Area, Orangi, Baldia and Shershah.
Residents of most of the areas, water supply to which was suspended for Wednesday under the KWSB plan of diverting Indus water to the localities hooked to the dried Hub Dam source, complained that their taps remained dry even on Thursday.
Such complaints were received mainly from Old City Area, Soldier Bazar, Garden East, Saddar and Lyari.
Refuting the KWSB claim of its sticking to one-day holiday in Indus source-hooked localities, residents of such localities also complained of prolonged closure, often stretching over even three consecutive days. They said that by suspending water supply for so many days, the KWSB was forcing them either to consume sub- soil unhygienic water or purchase the tanker water at an exorbitant rate.
A number of other localities and important installations, such as Landhi, Korangi, Defence Housing Authority, National Refinery, Karachi Port Trust, Pakistan Railways, PAF (Korangi) Base and its adjoining areas, also went without water on Thursdays.
The localities which would go dry on Friday include Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s blocks 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 10-A, 13-A, 13-B, 16, 17 and 18.
WASTAGE: On the one hand, there has been a hue and cry over acute water shortage while on the other a virtual lake has developed near Gulshan-i-Iqbal Chowrangi out of leakages from pipelines running through the area across the Khwaja Ajmer Nagri police station.
Residents of the area around the Gulshan roundabout pointed out that the leakages had developed a couple of days back and with the widening of the unattended ruptures, water gushing out of the pipelines had accumulated in a vast piece of land converting it into a lake. Irritated by the wastage of presently the much-sought-after commodity, the people deplored KWSB officials for taking no measures to plug the leakages.
PERFORMANCE: The KWSB officials have claimed that the repair work of the sheet of a valve, which had sunken two days back, had been completed. They said that the fault had resulted in a sharp decline in the water supply to Lyari. They said that Navy divers had helped repair the sunken sheet and that water supply to Lyari had been restored on Thursday.