Power breakdowns, water scarcity hit citizens hard

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The water scarcity and sleepless nights are two major problems resulting from the prolonged and unscheduled loadshedding being faced by the Islooites.
CDA Water Supply Directorate Director’s Shahid Mahmood told Pakistan Today on Monday that their department was facing a plethora of problems due to the power outages and that their department was receiving a large number of complaints because of it.
“Everybody considers it is our fault while it is not. We have to bear the brunt in the form of consumers’ complaints and hence we have to pay for the crisis the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO is facing”, he observed.
He said that they had written a number of letters to the IESCO calling their attention towards the matter but to no avail. The Capital Development Authority official said that they needed to build up water pressure systematically through a chain of tube-wells installed across the city to ensure a smooth supply. But our mechanism is jeopardised because of unscheduled loadshedding and it has become impossible for us to run these tube-wells according to our planning,” he explained.
He, however, said that presently even the IESCO could not be blamed since their express feeder had tripped due to supply disruption in the national grid. Sarwar Mehdi a resident of Sector-I/10 complained that people no longer believed the statements of the IESCO and the CDA
“I am sure the crisis would continue in the future,” said Suhail Khan, a retailer in Sadiqabad. Suhail said, “It seems as if we are going back to the dark ages, thanks to the IESCO,”
The residents complained that the water supply to their homes remained suspended for more than 15 hours which was unjustified. They were of the view that none of the authorities should blame each other and rather focus on the smooth supply of water and electricity.
In addition, the inhabitants of different areas said that power outages had become a nuisance for them.
Naseema Umer, a housewife, said that the power outages had disrupted routine of every household.
She said repeated breakdowns and voltage fluctuations were damaging home appliances every day in her neighbourhood.
IESCO officials, however, claim that they were not carrying out unscheduled power outages and that the few areas facing breakdowns only because of a heavy load on the system. They said IESCO was facing the problem of forced electricity shutdowns from main feeders.