KARACHI, May 11: With several million electricity consumers in the city enduring excessive loadshedding during the last 24 hours for various reasons, a resultant water shortage on Friday created a crisis-like situation for many of them.
Although, a shortage of water was felt by residents of all areas in the city, residents of many localities complained that they did not get a single drop after two days of recess, applied under a rotation system.
It was learnt that the shortage was caused by power failure at the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s Dhabeji, Gharo and Hub pumping stations — the three major installations supplying water to the city.
Dawn received a large number of calls from affected people living in different areas. Residents of apartment blocks appeared to be more worried over the situation as they ran out of water very quickly and had to buy the expensive tanker water.
“There was no water for ablution at mosques in our area when people reached there for the Juma prayers,” said a resident of Nazimabad No.1. “They had to opt for Tayammum [ablution without water],” he added.
A resident of Federal B Area, Block 15, said that his locality did not get water since Thursday morning and after running out of water, some people had to obtain subsoil water from a commercial concern in the neighbourhood. “The other affected neighbours were not lucky enough and God knows how they might have coped with the situation,” he wondered.
“We had to spend on buying water from a tanker service,” said a resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block IV-A.
Meanwhile, a large number of people took to the street and blocked Ibn-i-Sina Road for several hours in protest against an acute water shortage in their area. Residents of Masoom Shah Colony also staged a noisy demonstration and blocked the main road at Kalapul. Police rushed to the scene, charged baton and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the angry protesters and restore vehicular traffic.
The KWSB has held the KESC responsible for the situation, arguing that the power utility failed to ensure an uninterrupted power supply to the pumping stations.
“An over five-hour power outage — from 5.20am to 10.25am — at the Dhabeji and Gharo pumping stations was the actual cause of the much less than normal pumping at these installations on Friday,” said KWSB District East Engineer Ghulam Qadir, when contacted by Dawn.
Other sources in the water utility said that power failure at Dhabeji caused a shortfall of 180 million gallons of water that directly affected supplies to Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, F.B Area, Jamshed Town, Saddar Town, Kharadar, Lyari and Clifton.
“The power failure at Gharo caused another shortfall of six to seven million gallons of water and resulted in no supply to Shah Faisal Colony and short supply in Landhi, Korangi, Mohammad Ali Society and KDA Scheme-I,” the sources added.
“In the meantime, the Hub pumping station also suffered power outage from 1.10pm to 1.45pm causing a shortfall of three to four million gallons of water meant for the residents of Orangi, Baldia, SITE [both residential and industrial areas], Keamari, Mauripur and PAF Base Masroor,” they said.
Asked if a normal water supply can be expected on Saturday, the sources said it solely depended on an uninterrupted power supply to the pumping stations. “If there is no power disruption, there will be no water shortage in the city.”