KARACHI, Jan 6: Persisting water shortage in various union councils of Orangi Town has assumed alarming proportions and now protest demonstrations against the non-availability of water have become a matter of routine in the township.
Nazimeen of Orangi Town’s different union councils told Dawn that they, with a large number of residents from six water-starved union councils (UCs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 9), had staged a protest on Sunday night in front of the city government’s water and sanitation department’s Orangi No 10 office, situated near Urdu Chowk, to voice their anger against the lingering water shortage in their areas.
They deplored that the protesters kept on chanting slogans against the officials of the W&S department for not ensuring uninterrupted water supply to their localities and remained present in front of the W&S department’s office till 2am on Monday, but no senior officials of the W&S department turned up at the venue of the protest demonstration to help solve their water shortage problem.
The Nazimeen and the Naib Nazimeen of the affected union councils, including Izharul Haq, Hashmat Khan, Rehan, Shehnaz Perveen, Kashif Arain, Sultan Pervaiz and Raees Kazmi and a number of other councillors, have demanded of the city Nazim and the executive district officer of the W&S department to immediately restore normal and uninterrupted supply to their.
The worst-affected localities of the township include Bismillah Colony, Al-Fatah Colony, Bijli Nagar, Orangi No 10, Irani Camp, Urdu Chowk, Bewa Quarters, Madina Colony, Block L, Baloch Colony, Millat Colony, Block J, Aziz Nagar, Warsia Colony, Ghausia Baloch Colony, Benazir Colony, Makhdoom Shah Colony, Junaid Nagar, Ali Nagar and their adjoining localities.
A councillor of the UC-9, Aftab Ahmed, said an XEN of the W&S department, who was present in the office where protesters had assembled, kept on contacting his senior officials, including the chief engineer, but the latter’s efforts bore no fruit as their telephones were either busy.
He said 800,000 people living in the affected union councils were not being supplied water for the past five months.
BOARD RECONSTITUTED: The Sindh government has reconstituted the Board of the KWSB which has already become a department of the City District Government Karachi.
According a notification issued by the provincial local government department, the reconstituted board of the city government’s water and sewerage (W&S) department would be headed by the city Nazim as its chairman and the provincial secretary local government department would be its vice chairman.
The members of the Board are the Sindh environment department’s secretary, provincial finance department’s special secretary (Dev), city district government’s district coordination officer (member/secretary), planning and development department’s chief (PP&H), W&S department’s executive district officer, KESC’s managing director, CDGK’s works and services department’s executive district officer, a representative of the Association of Builders and Developers, Shafi Mohammad Lakho, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s president and the Karachi SITE Association of Industries’ president.