Waterless superannuated residents of Sector G-14/4

Islamabad : The residents of Sector G-14/4 mostly spending their whole life in serving Quaid-i-Azam University in various capacities pay all taxes and dues dutifully but are condemned to live beneath dejected conditions.

It is now 10 years since the Sector G-14/4 was developed by Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) to relocate QAU faculty and staff who were allotted plots at the campus. Extra part of the sector was allotted to other government employees in the pipeline. Since then, no attention has been paid to its development work to make it worth living area for retired people.

When the sector was allocated to house the retired government employees, they were hopeful to spend their remaining life in Heaven-like residence, but all their hopes seems to be ending in smoke emanating from some Hell.

The only developer of Sector G-14/4, the (FGEHF) has no control over the area and delaying development of the sector on one pretext or the other.

The major problem the sector facing nowadays is water shortage from which all forms of life originated. The sector routinely faces acute water shortage twice a year in April to July and September to November. The FGEHF has no plan in place to meet water shortage emergency in these months. The people assigned responsibility by the Director-General, FGEHF, to deal with the situation are incompetent, rude, with no managerial skills, seems to have no concept of basic human rights and appear to become part of the tanker mafia.

A private water tanker is charging from Rs1,500 to 2,000 depending on the situation. This price is in total mismatch with the price fixed by the FGEHF at Rs400 per tanker. As a result, tanker mafia exercises complete control over the natural water resources around the sector. The welfare society of the sector said a professor has become redundant because some residents suspect that they have become part of water cartel.

The retired employees with meagre pension and large families are spending Rs6,000 to Rs8,000 per month on water. All their suffering is due only to negligence of the FGEHF. The Foundation received the entire money for development including installation of water supply system, but still it is unable to work out any plan to deal with water crisis and is utterly unmoved by the unceasing visits and pleadings by the residents. To deprive regular clean water, an essential commodity of life, to hapless retired employees is nasty, petty act that speaks volumes of incompetence of this body.

There is no issue in the world for which no solution exists. The Foundation can find water within the sector or in the vicinity, install deep tubewells, establish a huge overhead water reservoir as is the case in many areas of Rawalpindi and connect it with the residential houses.

Instead of stealing allottees’ money from the sale of Mauve and commercial areas, FGEHF should pay the cost for its lethargy, laziness and delay from its own resources.

It is so horrible to see the residents doomed to buy a basic necessity like water for their whole life in the larger part of a year.