Water shortage hits Pindiites hard

Rawalpindi: Due to shortfall of rains and dry weather, the situation of water is alarming in Rawalpindi city and the power outages being done in excessive way by Iesco since the advent of holy month of Ramazan has deteriorated this water issue in the city.

The problem of water shortage has increased by 75 per cent in Rawalpindi city only due to power breakdowns which is being done enormously since last three weeks by Iesco. Compared to previous month, the number of complaints of water shortage has increased manifold and we are finding hard to meet the demand of water supply through tankers, said staff of complaint office of Wasa.

Ashfaq, incharge of Complaint section as well as Liaqat told that before May this year, people had been lodging complaints about water problem which were in nominal number. However, the number of complainants have surpassed beyond 700 per day when there has been an increase in power loadshedding after May 15.

Wasa at present has 21 water bowsers which are insufficient to supply water in 47 wards of the city. The number of water bowsers has to be doubled to meet demand. However, the water agency is facing financial crunch due to non-availability of funds therefore it is not in a position to purchase required number of bowsers, they said.

Wasa had forwarded summary to the Punjab government of Shahbaz Sharif demanding allocations of bailout package worth Rs500 million. However, now the set up is changed with the Interim government. It is hoped that when the next government takes over reins of power it would grant Wasa the bailout package. However this process would take some time.