KARACHI: The city chapter of the Jamaat-i-Islami on Wednesday organised a big demonstration and staged a sit-in outside the offices of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) in protest over the problem of water shortage in the metropolis.

Leading the evening protest, JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rahman said that the KWSB was a government institution responsible for water distribution across Karachi but the citizens here were not getting water the way it should come to them.

“The concept of receiving water through pipes is vanishing and everyone is getting this basic necessity through tankers, which is wrong. The system of providing water through tankers has become a mafia, which seems to be working with the KWSB,” he said.

“The water pumping stations are not working properly and are often down. There are also KWSB’s issues with K-Electric,” he said, adding: “When KE doesn’t pay Sui Southern Gas Company’s bills the latter keep supplying KE gas, but here when the water board falls behind on paying KE they shut off supply and the entire city is affected as a result of that.”

Hafiz Naeem regrets the PPP govt in Sindh does not own Karachi

‘Karachi’s needs 1,400MGD’

“The water distribution system is also wrong because water lines have been diverted to the industrial area of Karachi. Supplying water to the industry is the government’s job. They should have water treatment plants and recycling of water that the industry can use. But here water for residential areas is also being diverted to the industrial areas,” he said.

“Karachi has a population of 30 million and it is growing. The realistic requirement of water here is 1,400 million gallons of water per day [MGD], but what we are getting is 550 MGD. And there is no equal distribution thanks to corruption within the government and its institutions,” he said.

“The K-IV project, conceived by former Karachi mayor Niamatullah Khan, never saw the light of day also due to corruption and incompetence of the departments,” he said. “Some 16 years have passed after Niamatullah Khan and all political parties have ruled here but not even [former Karachi mayor] Mustafa Kamal, who was considered quite powerful, nor the PPP government or any other has been able to complete the K-IV project in order to give some relief to the citizens of Karachi.”

He said: “Now there is a new issue of K-IV’s design being faulty. It has been sent for review to Wapda but the new design being talked about also does not seem feasible and Karachi’s population is the biggest loser here. They remain thirsty.

“Nothing is being done for water in Karachi. There was nothing in the federal budget this year for K-IV. Meanwhile, the Sindh government also doesn’t know what it is doing about water. We need 650 MGD from the quota of water reserved for Karachi from the federal government, but we are getting only 260 MGD. Sadly, the current PPP government does not own Karachi,” Hafiz Naeem said.

Other speakers at the protest demonstration also added that corruption in the KWSB had reached lowest ranks.

“The valve man too takes a bribe here to provide water to an area,” said one protester, adding that sometimes there was water coming to an area twice a week, sometimes once a week and sometimes never.

“Then maintenance is so poor that all the old areas of the city don’t get piped water, as lines are broken or cracked. This also causes leakage,” said another protester.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2021