KARACHI: Leader of the Opposition in the City Council Advocate Saifuddin of the Jamaat-i-Islami and nine chairmen of JI-controlled towns in the metropolis have demanded “reorganisation” of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC), devolving its power sharing and operational mechanism to union committee (UC) level and warned that they would lodge FIRs against officials of the utility if their areas aren’t supplied clean drinking water or anyone dies by falling into uncovered manholes.

The fresh demands came on Monday at a meeting of the Advocate Saifuddin-led delegation with the KWSC management at the corporation’s head office.

KWSC CEO Engineer Syed Salahuddin Ahmed along with corporation’s COO Engineer Asadullah Khan briefed the delegation about the ongoing development projects and the upcoming schemes.

“A new line is being laid at Dhabeji pumping station and Old Pipri Main with the support of the World Bank and last year, 496 sewage development works were completed,” a KWSC statement quoted its CEO while briefing the delegation.

Opposition leader in City Council and nine JI town chairmen seek ‘reorganistion’ of water corporation

“He assured the delegation of resolution of all complaints and said that all problems will be solved on priority basis in collaboration with the respective UC and Town chairman,” he said.

Earlier, the town chairmen came up with complaints regarding water supply and sewage in their areas and sought effective operational mechanism to solve such problems at the earliest.

They unanimously demanded reorganisation of the KWSC to involve themselves in power sharing and decision making at the town level.

Leading the town chairmen, Advocate Saifuddin said that water supply, sewage system and garbage collection were key components of the city government. “But unfortunately the Sindh government has excluded the towns and union councils – the key unit of local government – from the system, which is against the spirit of the democratic governance,” he said.

“The KWSC should provide lists of the relevant officials to respective towns and UCs. The elected representatives should have the administrative control of the corporation at the level of towns and UCs. The promotion and demotion of the staffers should also be subject to the report by the respective elected representatives,” he said.

Later on talking to reporters, the leader of the opposition in the City Council said that he had forwarded several proposals to the KWSC management and both sides had agreed that they would hold another follow up meeting in which the utility would brief the elected representatives about the World Bank funding.

“The government is borrowing huge amount from World Bank for these institutions but we aren’t aware of any detail which defines such huge spending in the name of development,” said Advocate Saifuddin.

“For KWSC, the World Bank is funding US $1.6 billion but we don’t know what the plan is with such huge amount of money? How would it improve Karachi’s water supply and sewage system? Where would all this money be spent? The house of elected local government members must know it,” he added.

He also accused the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Mayor Murtaza Wahab of violating the set rules and tradition and running the city government on dictatorial terms. The mayor, he said, was still behaving like an administrator.

“We are elected representatives of our areas. So the people come to us for water supply, drainage system and garbage collection,” said Advocate Saifuddin. “We have made it clear to the KWSC authorities that if our areas face any water supply related problems or if anyone dies after falling into uncovered manholes due to the negligence of the corporation, we would move forward with the victims’ families and lodge FIR against the respective official of the KWSC,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2024