HYDERABAD, Aug 6: Protest demonstrations were staged and roads blocked with burning tyres and junk in many localities of Hyderabad on Monday night as a shortage of water persisting across the city for four days aggravated mainly due to frequent and prolonged power breakdowns.

Residents of Dadan Shah, Sarfaraz Colony, Tilak Incline, Saddar, Gharibabad, Pathan Colony, Mukhi Bagh, Yasrab Colony and other localities took to the streets to protest indifferent attitude of civic agencies towards their plight since monsoon rains started lashing the city on Saturday and caused suspension of water and power supply to their households. The protesters blocked several main thoroughfares disrupting flow of vehicular traffic for quite some time. Hundreds of men, women and children travelling in public and private vehicles remained stuck on roads for hours.

The protesters raised slogans against the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) for failing to avert the power and water crisis during and after rains. Some people who joined one of such protests at Tilak Incline fired into the air causing panic and scare in the locality.

Participants in the agitation told the media that Hesco and Wasa had been shifting the responsibility on to each other though both utilities failed to cope with the situation which made citizens remain without water and power for several days. They also criticised a lack of coordination between the two essential agencies saying that Hesco never bothered to adjust loadshedding hours with the water supply timings as a result of which pumping stations remain nonfunctional during water supply hours. They said the rains and ensuing flooding in the city had already devastated their routine life and the water and power crisis had added to their miseries.

The most affected areas included Saddar, Katcha Qila, Gari Khata, Station Road, Fakir ka Pir, Peshaweri Mohallah, Sarfaraz Colony, Dadan Shah, Tilak Incline, Heerabad, Pathan Colony, Gharibabad, Pak Colony, Tando Wali Mohammad, Doctors Colony, Makrani Para, Qasimabad phase-I and II, Sheedi Goth, Hussainabad, Sahrish Nagar, Latifabad Unit 9 and 11, Islamabad, Phulelli, parts of Pretabad, Liaquat Colony and Khai Road.

“People have to obtain subsoil water at a rate of Rs50 to Rs80 per hour from a source where it is available for other purposes but clean drinking water was not available anywhere since Friday,” Nadeem Khan, a resident of Sarfaraz Colony, said. “No water is being supplied to this locality by Wasa for many days,” he said, adding that “the people who have a bore-well are not ready to oblige neighbours every day”.

Most residents of the affected localities were critical of Hesco complaining that the utility had resorted to excessive loadshedding while failing to rectify faults promptly which often prolonged the total outage hours in 24 hours to 10 hours. “The Hesco people concerned do not attend phones to register complaints and if they do, no one turns up to rectify faults and restore electricity,” some of them said.

A large part of Hyderabad experienced a massive power breakdown at around 6am on Monday and affected Saddar, Gari Khata, Tilak Incline, Dadan Shah and many other localities. The supply could be restored at about 6pm.

Wasa managing director Saleemuddin, when contacted for his comment, said that the water shortage was caused by unavailability of electricity at pumping stations. But on Monday, he added, Wasa employees agitating for payment of their four-six months salaries stopped water supply to the city. He hoped that the situation would start improving now when the agitating employees had been assured of payment of their salaries soon and convinced to end their protest.

According to a Hyderabad Development Authority workers leader, Mohammad Aslam Abbasi, Wasa’s work-charge employees were not paid their salaries for six months and regular workers for three months. Retired employees were also not paid their pension for four months, he added.