Karachi: DHA residents request city Nazim to increase water supply to DHA

[Naveed Yaseen]

Association of Defence Residents (ADR) will request city Nazim Mustafa Kamal to increase water supply to Defence Housing Authority, said ADR General Secretary Asad Kizilbash while talking to PPI on Thursday.

“We will Kamal to supply 16 million gallon of water per day to Defence Housing Authority (DHA) from Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) to overcome the acute shortage of water and defeat tankers mafia in Defence,” he said.

Kizilbash said that the KWSB is not supplying the required amount of water, nine million gallons per day (MGD), to the DHA according to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) it signed with the DHA. ‘’The KWSB is hardly providing 7.3 to 7.4 MGD to the DHA against nine MGD water.

‘’The DHA does not come under the city Nazim, which is a problem, but we are also citizens of Karachi,” he said. ”I have also met Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Deputy Convener Dr Farooq Sattar in connection with increasing water supply to DHA,” he said. “The DHA’s water requirement was 12 MGD around three years ago, but this has increased to 16 MGD, specially with the development of Phase VIII. The KWSB is only providing nine MGDs and we were acquiring three MGDs from the COGEN.”

‘’As far as alternate sources are concerned we are still thinking to stretch a direct water pipeline from Pipri but that is a long process, he said.

Kizilbash said that due to acute water shortage the residents are heavily dependant on commercial water tankers that are quite expensive. The official water tankers supply which is one MGD was under the jurisdiction of the DHA in the past but now it has been handed over to the Cantonment Board, he said.

“We don’t have executive power to stop supply of water through commercialised water tankers,” he said. He added that DHA water committee keep a vigil on the shortage of water and tankers mafia, but it was difficult to put a figure on how much water is supplied to the DHA by commercialised tankers.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=176370