Political leaders warn of riots in city if water crisis continues

Karachi
The city’s industries would come to a standstill whereas people would take to the streets if the situation was not brought under control within a few days, expressed various political leaders on Tuesday, while commenting on the metropolis’ worsening water crisis.
The wheel of the city’s industrial units will come to a halt, people will fight over water if the Sindh government fails to take notice of shortage of water supply to the city.
A gap of 480million daily already existed in the city’s water demand and supply and it suffered another shortfall owing to the continual load shedding at the Dhabeji pumping station and the gap would widen further in the next couple of days.
Senior member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Dr Farooq Sattar blaming the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) led Sindh government for creating what he called was an artificial water crisis warned of serious ethnic riots if the situation took a turn for the worse.
Referring to a demand of 1,000mgd (million gallons per day) he said that only 520mgd of water was available which left a shortfall of 480mgd which could be minimised with effective monitoring of the city’s valve operation as well as proper utilisation of the available water.
MNA MQM Kunwar Naveed Jamil demanded of the government to immediately announce the K-IV project for additional water supply to the city.
He said that those who had installed illegal connections were continuously receiving water while those with legal connections suffered.
He warned of a legal action against the water board if it continued to fail to provide water to the people.
According to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) former Sindh president Nadir Akmal
Leghari said the water crisis in Pakistan was deepening as it had been placed among the countries with fast depleting water resources.
“There is a dire need for steps regarding sensitising people about rational use of the resource.”
He claimed that water problems rose majorly due to poor governance and a lack of interest and commitment by the public and private sectors in solving the issue.
Sindh United Party chief Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah demanded removal of illegal hydrants and monitoring of legal hydrants.
He said that K-IV water supply project which would add 250mgd had become a victim of red tape.
Sindh Minister for Local Government Sharjeel Memon, who is also chairman of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, had announced on Sunday that the number of water tanker trucks providing free of charge service to the citizens of Karachi would be raised to 3,000 during Ramazan, and 1,000 from Monday (today).
He said the Sindh government was utilising all resources available to it to overcome the water crisis in the city and “we have succeeded in containing the water shortage to some extent.” Memon said the situation has improved due to proper management in the board and also the K–IV project will start this month, adding the project has been delayed due to some mistakes but the present government has taken interest and around 13,500 acres of land have been provided in to the KWSB. “A consultant has also been appointed for the project.”
To check water theft and leakages, he mentioned that the board has installed meters on 19 lines main lines supplying water to the city and added that meters will be fixed on other 24 lines within a month time.
He disclosed that so far construction of 62 water parks has been halted to save water for fundamental use and a full campaign has also been launched to raze illegal water parks.
Later, talking to the media after the press conference, the minister said that 550 mgd of water was available for the city against the capacity of 1000 mgd. To make its distribution judicious and appropriate, the KWSB’s management officers and the technical staff were working round the clock, he added.
“In this regard leaves of all the board staff have been cancelled.”
He told the reporters that plans were underway to increase water supply from Dhabeji pumping station.