KARACHI: Water shortage in several areas

Published November 24, 2002

KARACHI, Nov 23: An acute shortage of water persisted in various parts of the city for the third consecutive day on Saturday.

The localities which either went dry or got scant supply on Saturday included Shershah, Clifton’s blocks 2 and 5, parts of Lyari, Pak Colony and Hasrat Mohani Colony.

Complaints of persisting water shortage have also been received from different sectors of Orangi, Baldia and Surjani townships.

Orangi Township’s hard-hit areas included Pakistan Bazaar, Ghaziabad (sector 16), Makhdoom Shah Colony (sector 11 1/2), Bangla Bazaar, sector 14, Block-L of sector 10, Aziz Nagar and Ghausia Baloch Colony.

A councillor of Orangi Town’s UC-9 said since the residents of the affected areas belonged to the low-income group, they could not afford to buy private tankers. So they had been continuously consuming sub-soil unhygienic water at the cost of their health.

Residents of affected sectors of the sprawling townships of Orangi, Baldia and Surjani criticized the KWSB for not ensuring adequate water supply to their localities despite the fact that their turn of getting supply came after every 72 hours.

Accusing the KWSB’s officials concerned of curtailing the duration of their supply, a perturbed resident of Orangi’s Block-L said since they got inadequate supply after every four days, they often went without water for at least three consecutive days in a week.

The localities where water supply remained suspended on Saturday as part of the KWSB plan of diverting the Indus water to the areas hooked to the Hub source included PECHS, KDA Scheme-1, Sharfabad, Karachi Television Centre, KACH Society, the Civic Centre and its adjoining localities, Mehmoodabad No 5, Liaquatabad, Gharibabad, Furqanabad, Bandhani Colony and parts of Nazimabad.

Liaquat National Hospital and Aga Khan Hospital also went without water on Saturday.