Apathy of the government to end load shedding has not only been causing problems to the common people but has also put its own departments into a troublesome situation. Same is case with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for which it has become almost impossible to meet the water supply demand of the capital city due to the long hour power outages.
CDA sources said what aggravates the problem was laxity of the newly appointed water supply director Zulfiqar Khan Jadoon towards making efforts for the timely repairing of water tankers and tube-wells installed in several areas of the capital city. They said the routine work of the directorate has gotten affected after the promotion of ex-director water supply directorate Shahid Mahmood some two months back as now many of the tube-wells, an important source of water, are not working properly. A CDA official told that the issues related to water supply could only be resolved if the director concerned bring the problems in notice of the CDA high-ups including its chairman.
Most of the water tankers need timely repairing but the negligent attitude of the officials concerned resulted in the occurrence of many faults in these water boozers, said the official. The CDA claimed to have chalked out a strategy to overcome the water shortage and to ensure the smooth supply of water to the residents. However, 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 neighborhood.
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. When contacted Director Water Supply Zulfiqar Jadoon to comment on the issue, he refused to do so, saying that he was handed over a statement from the chairman office not to interact with media persons.
