Residents of Ichhra, Samanabad, Rehmanpura and Shama have been facing serious water supply problems because of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project that is underway on Ferozepur Road, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Residents complained that water supply remained disconnected most of the time during the day while dirty water was being supplied at night. Residents of Ichhra claimed that water supply had not been restored in the area for over three months. They said that even though they had filed several complaints regarding the issue, no government official or public representatives had visited the area to address their problems.
Another resident of Shama said, “The Punjab government did not make a backup plan for such crisis situation and while BRTS is being flashed all over the media, nobody is ready to take care of these issues. The government has to finish this project soon to increase its vote bank.” Yaseen Hayaat, a resident of Ichhra, while talking to Pakistan Today said, “We have been running from pillar to post to get our water woes registered with the authorities concerned but all our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The WASA officials blame the bus project for frequent suspension of water and say they are helpless because it is the chief minister’s own project.”
Taking to Pakistan Today, another resident of Rehmanpura said; “The water pipes supplying water to this area were connected to the main pipe from the other end. We only get water when all the other pipes are full or overflowing.” He further said that if the other pipes were not full, there was no water for hours at a time, adding that his area only received water from 10pm to midnight during the entire day. An engineer from the Al Barka Construction Company, which was given the contract for the BRTS, told
Pakistan Today on the condition of anonymity that it was the responsibility of WASA officials to provide them a map of the underground water pipes.
“We carried out drilling according to our plan. There is no way for us to know the exact location of the water pipes,” he said.
According to WASA SDO Amir Khaliq, “The restoration process has been started and about 90 percent of the pipes have been restored. The remaining work of water supply will be soon finished.”
