KWSB starts operation against illegal hydrants, water connections

Karachi  

The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has launched a rigorous campaign against the illegal water hydrants and the unlawful water connections on the directives of the Sindh chief minister to provide some relief to the citizens with overcoming the acute water shortage, said local government minister Jam Khan Shoro on Saturday.

He said the KWSB managing director, Misbah Farid, personally went along the KWSB teams to disconnect illegal water hydrants and unlawful water connections near the Musarrat Cinema SITE area.

The traffic grid lock was reported from the area as the KWSB teams had to close down some roads to carry out the operation and the vehicular traffic was diverted to alternate routes.

Sharing details about the operation, Misbah Farid said the KWSB teams were accompanied by the police force, which helped in closing down some roads and disconnecting major illegal water hydrants.

Talking to The News from Nazimabad, the water board chief said he had raided in the area and disconnected illegal water connections.

The KWSB teams were also said to have imposed heavy fines on members of the water mafia.

Faird said that the local government minister had extended his support in disconnecting illegal water connections.

He added that before the upcoming spell of monsoon rains, the government would completely remove such illegal water hydrants which were passing over the nulllahs in the city.

Farid said that a survey was being conducted to remove illegal water hydrants and illegal water connections and the water board was determined to eliminate this menace from the city.

He added that the KWSB was fully aware that this mafia would try to emerge once again, but such mafia elements would not be given any room to install illegal connections again.

“The KWSB team will make surprise visits and eliminate this mafia,” he added.

Talking to The News about clearance of the five major nullahs in the city by the end of this year, the local government minister said that encroachments built on the nullahs were the biggest hurdle, but efforts were being made to clean achieve the task by December 2016.

Though the government had promised to provide alternate land to people living on settlements built on nullahs, but they didn’t seem to vacate their places, even knowing about the potential life-threatening risks, the minister said. 

The staff of the KMC always faced resistance from such encroachers and the anti-encroachments staff even risk their lives while carrying out operations against their illegal settlements, he added.

Shoro said he was personally monitoring the ongoing campaign against water theft as the chief minister had ordered for taking stern action against illegal water mafia.

“This mafia is causing problems for the innocent citizens,” he said.

Earlier on Friday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah directed the city commissioner to launch a ruthless operation against water mafia elements that he said were "stealing over 10 million gallons of water per day from different areas and selling it to industrialists".  

“Such criminal practices cannot be tolerated at any cost,” the CM was quoted as saying in a statement issued on Friday after he presided over a meeting regarding different projects of Karachi at the CM House.