LAHORE, June 17: Careless digging by the workers of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project has ruptured water supply pipelines on The Lower Mall, Secretariat Chowk and Lytton Road causing the suspension of water supplies to the residents for the last 10 days.

Residents of Data Ganj Bakhsh Town say the breach of pipelines had multiplied their problems as already they had been facing severe shortage of water due to loadshedding.

Aqeel Ahmed, a resident of Kapoorthalla, says he has been using bottled water for drinking and kitchen use.

“The situation is now so terrible that I take bath in a barber’s shop,” he said.

He said though he had got registered complaints with WASA helpline, it did not work as none of WASA officials visited the locality.

He demanded that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif take action against the officials for carelessness in digging and damagingthe underground water supply pipelines on the BRTS project routes in the city.

WASA Managing Director Dr Javaid Iqbal said Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA) officials had torn the pipeline on The Lower Mall and the Secretariat Chowk three times.

He said the WASA construction directorate had started shifting the supply lines to other places to ensure the uninterrupted water supply to consumers. DCO: District Coordination Officer (DCO) Noorul Amin Mengal constituted on Sunday teams to ensure functioning of generators installed on tubewells, says a handout.

The DCO visited various city parts and directed WASA officials to run tubewells with generators during loadshedding hours.

He said that four petrol pumps had been allocated for continuous petrol and diesel supplies to generators. He said the monitoring teams would work under the district officer (monitoring) to check 110 generators and submit their reports to him every day. He said officials would have to work on a war footing. Mr Mengal said if any official was found involved in diesel theft, they would be punished.