ABBOTTABAD, May 15: The city has been facing acute water shortage for last five days and no letup is in sight. The worst-hit areas are thickly-populated Kehal, Kunj, Malikpura and main city localities.

It may be pointed out that hundreds of millions of rupees were spent through the Project Management Unit (PMU) by the previous government to address the chronic water shortage problem which had been a source of great inconvenience for the people in every summer.

But, it has been noticed that most of the tubewells are either not functioning properly or are out of order. Besides, the intermittent power breakdown also disrupts the water supply schedule.

A system has been in vogue according to which water from different tubewells is stored in the main storage tank in the city and then shifted onwards to the sub-storage tanks constructed at Kunj, Kehal and Malikpura for supplying it to the people.

It has become a daily routine that though the power supply is available at first point the power breakdown in the area of the main storage tank creates the storage problem. However, if there is no power breakdown at either ends but if there is power breakdown at the consumers end it creates hurdles in the water supply to them.

ROAD ACCIDENT: A tourist died and four were injured when a Suzuki van they were travelling in skidded into a hundreds of feet deep ditch near Changali Gali.

The driver could not control the van, carrying the tourists from Gujranwala, at a sharp curve, resulting in the instantaneous death of one and injuries to four. The injured were rushed to the Ayub Medical Complex Hospital. They were identified as Umer, Siddique, Jehanzeb and Umer Saeed.