KWSB’s views sought on plea for water supply to DHA, CBC

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB) to submit its comments on a petition seeking water supply to residents of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) through pipelines.

The direction came recently on a petition of Amena Khan and other DHA residents. Filing comments on the petition, a Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) official said KWSB and DHA/CBC were in agreement to supply 9mgd water to CBC since 1999. However, added the official, KWSB miserably failed to provide the agreed upon water supply since then, and has over the years gradually reduced the supply to almost half.

The CBC official said that the current demand of the CBC residents has reached 16mgd, and this ever-increasing gap between demand and supply can only be resolved through a collective and collaborative effort of KWSB, Sindh government and CBC.

He said the water tankers being supplied to DHA and CBC residents are considerably cheaper than other commercial private water tankers, adding that the tankers are being supplied to alleviate water scarcity that has resulted due to the shortage in supply by KWSB.

He also said CBC is diligently pursing the matter with the authorities concerned at various levels and is committed to resolve the water shortage as soon as possible. The official mentioned the CBC study on meeting the demand of water supply in the area, and requested the court to implead the KWSB as party in the matter as well as issue a notice to the board for filing its comments.

The CBC representative said the water shortage issue is also pending before the Supreme Court, adding that the subject matter should be decided first in the SC. After taking CBC’s comments on record, an SHC division bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi allowed the application for impleading KWSB as party in the petition, and issued a notice to the board with the direction to file para-wise comments on the petition.