KWSB left Karachiites at water tanker mafia’s mercy during Eid

The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) seemed to have left the people of Karachi at the mercy of the water tanker mafia during Eid-ul-Azha, as the board completely failed to supply water to the city and continue its online water tanker service.

Tankers were, however, providing water through the board’s hydrants at exorbitant commercial rates.

Contrary to the press statements from the board that all of its staff would remain onboard with all its pumps and hydrants functioning throughout the city during rainfall and the Eid, none of the six hydrants had the board’s staff present. However, tankers were being filled and supplied at commercial rates from the same hydrants.

There are six different hydrants of the KWSB functional in the city: Nipa Hydrant, Sakhi Hassan Hydrant, Safoora Hydrant, Future Colony Hydrant, Landhi Hydrant and Sherpao Colony Hydrant.

On the directives of the Supreme Court (SC), the KWSB launched its new mobile application in May 2018, after which residents of the city, deprived of water through board’s pipelines, can order tankers online from these hydrants, and if all goes well, the tanker may reach at your doorstep in 24 hours.

However, due to heavy intermittent rainfall and days-long power outages in the city before the Eid, the entire city faced an acute shortage of water to the extent that a lot of people had to delay the sacrifice of animals on the first day of the Eid.

After a continuous 24-hour power breakdown, Hina Masood and her three younger brothers in North Karachi’s 7-D area separately ordered water tankers through the mobile application on Sunday, so that they could have water in their tanks on Monday [Eid day]. “There’s a quota of 100 water tankers in our area,” said Masood. “The first 100 [online] requests of water tankers are met, while the rest of the residents of the area have to order tankers at much higher rates.”

Until Thursday, she said that the tanker did not arrive at her home. Her family shifted to their relatives’ home in Gulshan town for the sacrifice of their animals and the Eid prayer. Masood’s case is not the only one. In Gulistan-e-Jauhar’s Block 12, Barira Siddiqui had her water tanks empty two days before the Eid. She ordered a water tanker through the mobile application from Safoorah Hydrants, which didn’t arrive at her home till the filing of this story on Thursday night.

The entire mohalla, she shared, had to relocate due to an acute water shortage. “When we visited the Safoorah Hydrant on the first and second day of Eid, there wasn’t any board’s staff present,” she said and added that on the third day out of sheer misery they ordered a 1,000- gallon water tanker at a commercial rate of Rs3500.

KWSB’s official rates of water tanker are Rs1,000 for 1,000 gallons, Rs1,400 for 2,000 gallons of water, Rs1,800 for 3,000 gallons of water and Rs2,500 for 5,000 gallons of water. The tanker service is outsourced by the board and for each water tanker supplied to the users by the board, the contractor of the tanker is allowed to supply one at commercial rate, at their whim, an official of the board told The News.

When this correspondent visited Safoora Hydrant and Sakhi Hassan Hydrant, scores of tankers were lined up. An official of the board at Safoora Hydrant told The News on the condition of anonymity that thousands of complains had been pending for the past five days. “Most of the water tankers were being supplied to the sacrificial animal market in Sohrab Goth, due to which we weren’t able to manage the load of residential areas,” the official said and added that it would take them more than a week to normalise the routine supply.

Meanwhile, the board’s official supplier at Sakhi Hassan Hydrant, Muhammad Saeed told The News that the water supply through their online service was at halt during the Eid, due to a shortage of water at the hydrant since August 5. “There are more than 2,500 requests pending,” Saeed said and added that it would take at least two days for them to kick start their supply back.

However, tankers were being supplied at commercial rates from both of the hydrants. One of the owners, Bashir, shared that he would charge Rs3,500 for 1000 gallons of water. “There’s no supply of water through the water board and we’re burdened,” he said and added that they had been catering to the entire city throughout the Eid.

KWSB MD Asad Ullah Khan, as usual, was not available for comment when contacted by The News. The board’s spokesperson, Rizwan Ahmed, said that they deployed their officials at their hydrants during the Eid, but the drivers of water tankers went back to their villages during the Eid.

“We cannot stop them from their religious duties. The drivers are not board employees but the contractor’s,” he said and added that also due to urban flooding in the city, they were unable to continue their online water supply operation.