KARACHI, March 25: At a time when the city is already in the grip of water crisis, a long spell of power failure, now at Pipri pumping station, on Tuesday, resulted in suspension of pumping and ultimately leading to another shortfall of 12 million gallons.
It is for the fourth time during the last three days that the pumping process has remained suspended for about 26 hours at four different stations with intervals, causing an overall short supply of 96 million gallons of water.
The normal process of pumping of water to the metropolis first received a severe blow on Sunday when a cable fault resulted in 18-hour-long spell of power breakdown (10am Sunday to 4am Monday) at Dhabeji Phase-II pump house leading to a shortfall of 72 million gallons. This spell was followed by frequent interruption in power supply to the North-East Karachi (Old) and K-2 pumping stations between 3.30pm and 7.25pm on Monday adding another big shortfall of 12.5 million gallons.
The fresh four-hour spell of power failure at Pipri pump house (11am to 3pm) has added to the miseries of Karachiites who would experience even worse situation on Wednesday due to the further 12 million gallon shortfall in water supply.
The Water and Sanitation Department officials have requested the KESC to make sure that the transformers and circuits meant for the major pumping stations were not overloaded.
Amid persisting water shortage, private water tankers on Tuesday raised the supply rates and charged exorbitantly high prices from the residents of water-starved localities.
The localities which suffered most on Tuesday in the wake of four-hour power failure at Pipri pumping station included Landhi, Korangi, Malir, Defence Housing Authority, Clifton, PECHS, Mehmoodabad, Akhtar Colony, Azam Basti, Shah Faisal Colony and different cooperative housing societies.
Water supply to the sprawling townships of Baldia, Orangi, North Karachi, Surjani Town, Shershah, Site industrial area, different blocks of North Nazimabad and Federal B Area was also affected badly owing to the stoppage of pumping at NEK (Old) and K-2 pumping stations on Monday.
Residents of Orangi, Baldia and Shershah complained that most of the localities went dry on their last turn of receiving the supply and, as such, they would continue to face the crisis for another three-four days as water was being supplied to these areas after every 72 hours.
Admitting that various parts of the city either went without water or received scant supply on Tuesday, a senior officer of the W&S Department hoped that overall water supply situation of the metropolis would be normalized by Wednesday if no major power breakdowns occurred at any pumping stations.
Complaints of persisting water shortage have also been received from different parts of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town, Saddar Town, North Karachi and Buffer Zone. Residents of Shah Faisal Colony Nos. 1 and 2 said whenever their turn of getting water comes, electricity kept playing hide and seek. As result, we fail to pump water into the overhead tanks.