KARACHI: Blaming the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board for the current water crisis in the city and a subsequent rise in water bowser prices, water tanker owners and operators on Friday said that the situation could improve only if subsoil water hydrants were issued licences.

However, the KWSB said the water board did not issue NOCs or licences to every hydrant rather it was the responsibility of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation or the administration of the town, where they were operating, to give the permission.

The KWSB issued NOCs to boring water hydrants only and work was under way for the renewal of licences, said its managing director while speaking to Dawn.

The documents would have to be issued all over again because all the hydrants, save the 12 called legal, across the metropolis had been bulldozed, claimed secretary general of the All Karachi Tankers Association Mohammad Sharif.

He said the bulldozing of all subsoil water hydrants without taking the association on board caused water shortage, as subsoil water fulfilled 80 per cent water requirement of the city.

He explained boring water was used mainly for cleaning and washing clothes at homes and by factories and industries. “By closing the subsoil hydrants, that demand for water has also fallen on the freshwater hydrants and there are only 12 of those legally operating in the city,” he reiterated.

Now there are very long queues at the 12 hydrants, with the result that where one tanker used to make five to six trips to the hydrants a day, it can only make one. They can only deliver water 30 hours after receiving an order. “As they can only make one trip in a day, they also have to fulfil their requirements. It is for this reason that they have raised the cost per tanker from Rs2,000 or Rs3,000 to Rs6,000 to Rs8,000,” he said.

Most people cannot pay that kind of money but the tanker owners are aware that residents of Clifton and Defence can, so after waiting the whole night at the Landhi or Chakra Goth hydrants to have their fill, they pull up under and around the Qayyumabad flyover. Residents of these areas, which anyway depended on tankers for most of their water needs, bow down to their demands.

Mr Sharif said the KWSB didn’t think through the repercussions of bulldozing the subsoil hydrants. He said: “They [the KWSB] said these hydrants were involved in theft of freshwater as well as electricity. Had they taken the All Karachi Tankers Association on board on this, we would have seen to it that such a thing wouldn’t happen. An easy way out now would be to issue no objection certificates or licenses to the subsoil hydrants which guarantee only dealing in boring water. Our association can also take up responsibility of their operations.

“Bring in the Pakistan Rangers on this, if they don’t even trust us. Or install meters to monitor the output of water at the hydrants. Otherwise, right now it is only February and not summer as yet. Things may get even worse during the summer months.”

Make the subsoil hydrants legal by giving them NOCs or licences and the water crisis could be resolved within just three days, he claimed.

“But unfortunately, those who issue such NOCs or licenses are corrupt people and are asking for Rs1 million to Rs1.5 million in bribe first. And as all the hydrants have been destroyed, these documents have to be issued all over again,” he said.

KWSB MD Qutubuddin Shaikh said: “The KWSB only issues NOCs to purely boring water hydrants. At the moment we are reviewing the renewal of the licenses and working out a policy for that. Hopefully, it will all be resolved soon.”

“Karachi requires 1,100 MGD of water and 550 MGD of that used to come from the Hub River, which is pretty much dried up now. We are trying to feed the areas affected by this from Dhabeji west and central pumps but there are many other issues also such as the disruption in power supply to our bulk supply pumping stations. There are power breakdowns there every now and then which don’t even allow the supply to stabilise for a constant flow. It’s the same at all the five bulk supply pumping stations in Dhabeji, Gharo, Pipri, North East Karachi and Hub,” he added.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2015

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