SUKKUR, Jan 5: In the wake of annual canal closure, an acute shortage of water for drinking and irrigation purposes has hit large parts of Sindh.
A shortage of potable water continued here on Wednesday for the fifth day with a large number of people including children thronging places where underground water was available through hand-pumps.
The worst affected areas included old city, the Minara, Bunder, Queens, Jeelani, Frere and Military roads, Local Board, Neem-ki-Charhi and New Goth. Though the city municipal authorities were informed about the shortage by the Sukkur Barrage authorities before the annual closure of canals, they did not paid heed to it hence the crisis.
The city residents have called upon the Sindh government to take notice of the situation and direct the district government to immediately take up the project of boring at the bank of the River Indus so that an alternate source of water supply could be developed.
They complained that every year in January, water shortage occurred and the municipal authorities promised to construct a jetty at the river and even allocated funds for it but as the shortage ended, the municipal authorities forget the project and utilized the funds for other purposes.
Meanwhile, District Nazim Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Naib Nazim Iqbal Dawood visited the municipal water works and the site where pumps had been installed on boats near Lance Down Bridge for supplying water to the city directly from the river.
The nazim directed the water works officials to install more pumps to enhance the supply of water from three million gallons to five million gallons. Later, he ordered the taluka municipal officer to also supply water through water tankers and told him that fuel expenses would be borne by the district government.
THATTA: An acute shortage of water due to closure of channels in the district since the last two weeks has adversely affected the newly-sown Rabi crops as well as standing crops of sugarcane, banana and vegetables, and has also created potable water crisis, particularly in urban localities.
Reason behind the prolonged closure of outlet channels of the Keenjhar Lake, as put by the authorities of the Kalri Baghar circle, is the decreasing level of water in the lake, which has dropped from 49-IRL to 46.9-IRL in the last four days.
They fear that if outflow of water from the lake for local consumption is allowed, it would deepen the water crisis prevalent in Karachi, of which, Keenjhar is one of the major distributaries, with 900 to 1,200 cusecs of water a day.
They said that they could not take the risk of opening the channels as there seemed to be no provision for increasing the water level in the Indus upstream for at least another week.
Meanwhile, People's Party Parliamentarians MPA Sassui Palijo, after visiting the dried-up reservoirs of Thatta, Mirpur Sakro and Ghorabari towns as well as other channels and tributaries, told journalists that the district was facing the worst-ever water crisis, and added that she would move the issue in the assembly.
Meanwhile, the chief engineer of the Kotri Barrage, Manzoor Ahmed Sheikh, has said that the irrigation department will overcome the water crisis in the district by releasing required amount of water in the Keenjhar Lake through the K.B. Feeder (upper) on January 7.
Speaking at a press conference held in the office of the Kalri Baghar executive engineer here on Wednesday, Mr Sheikh said that the water level in the lake had struck the 46.8-IRL mark, however, the lake had enough reserve to maintain water supply to Karachi for another 21 days.
He disclosed that on Wednesday, discharge of water upstream was 1,800 cusecs while it was 8,000 cusecs at the Sukkur Barrage, and added that the situation would improve as soon as water reached the Kotri Barrage.
He claimed that his department had apprised the Water and Sanitation Agency administration of the water shortage 10 days before the crisis and, therefore, the liability of the crisis did not rest on their shoulders. He maintained that irrigation officials had honoured their promise with the WASA by releasing water to Hyderabad in 30hrs.
HYDERABAD: The Water and Sanitation Agency has announced that the Sindh irrigation department has released water in the combined canal at 3am on Wednesday and that the Wasa's water filter plant has started functioning from 8am. However, it said that it would take 24 to 36 hours for the filter plant to completely restore water supply to consumers.
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