HYDERABAD, Jan 27: Consumers are caught in a dispute between two utilities over the issue of non-payment of dues simmering since long.

A large part of Hyderabad district is facing water shortage after the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company, on Tuesday, disconnected supply to filter plants and sewerage pumping stations of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) because of non-payment of arrears.

However, Hesco restored electric supply to Wasa on the intervention of Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Ghauri but the issue of recovering Rs8 million from the Sindh government departments stands where it was.

The utility is likely to disconnect power supply to Wasa again to put pressure on provincial government to clear its outstanding dues.

The three urban talukas of the district — Hyderabad, Latifabad and Qasimabad — remain without water supply from Thursday night to Friday evening.

While water supply remained shut-off, streets and roads depicted the picture of choked main sewage system and overflowing pipelines.

Managing Director, Wasa, Saleemuddin said normalisation of water supply will take at least 24 hours since power was restored late on Friday.

However, water began reaching Thandi Sarak from 30MGD filter plant, while airlocks were also causing problems, he said.

The fragile financial position of Wasa does not allow it to pay even salaries to its employees what to say of other burdens, the MD said.

Hesco is demanding Rs1,765 million which seems to be an exaggerated figure he said adding that according to our calculations it was not more Rs700-800 million even if full load of electricity were utilised. However, bills against major connections like filter plants are correct. Bills of smaller machines are exaggerated which need to be corrected.

Meanwhile, Mehmood Kaimkhani, a director in Hesco claimed the dues at Rs1,765 as correct keeping in view the number of months i.e., from February 2010 to December 2011.

Hesco is supposed to clear bills but since the Sindh government had approached the court on the issue, hence bills prior to January 2010 can be kept for pending but regular bills should be paid, he said.

Case of Wasa is different as people tend to avoid paying water bills on one pretext or the other. It is the responsibility of the provincial government to adjust these charges at source.

Kaimkhani said that another round of meeting is scheduled for Monday with the government officials to discuss the matter of outstanding arrears, including that of Wasa.

He said Hesco shares its billings with the Sindh government's consultants for reconciliation and they don't listen unless we cut off connections.

A Wasa official said that Hesco gets at source adjustments at the government level and received Rs15 million in last fiscal from the Finance Department though these should have been paid to Wasa for water charges pending against the government departments.

Hesco spokesman said that Rs24 billion were standing against provincial departments from 2004 to January 2010.

The Sindh government moved the High Court which passed an interim order allowing Hesco to recover bills from January 2010. The amount now stands at over Rs8 billion, he said.

However, subsidy to Wasa remains suspended from early 1990s.

Our Mirpurkhas correspondent adds: Hesco disconnected power supply to offices and installations of the Mirpurkhas taluka municipal administration due to non-payment of arrears.

Hesco officials disconnected power supply to streetlights, water supply and sewerage pumping stations and offices as arrears against TMA stood at Rs1.73 billion.

Executive Engineer, Hesco, Mirpurkhas, Mohammad Farooq Afghan told Dawn that the federal and provincial departments were defaulters of Rs3 billion.

“Today power supply to the TMA is disconnected and on Saturday supply to police and railway departments, including Railway Colony and offices will also be shut down,” he said.

Meetings were held with the concerned departments but they refused to pay bills forcing Hesco to disconnect supply.