On the suggestion of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) administrator, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) will deal with all hydrants operating on underground water acquired through boring and tankers. A committee has been established to formulate a policy for all such hydrants and tanker service operations. In a meeting between the Tankers Association and KMC administrator, the issue of hydrants with boring water source was brought to light about a year ago. During the meeting it was decided that KWSB would overlook the said hydrants and ensure that the water supplied through such hydrants was used for industrial purposes only, since the water acquired through boring was not fit for human consumption. In this regards, a committee had been established under KWSB Revenue Departmen Deputy Managing Director Waqar Hashmi to formulate a policy for this system. Trade license for this system would be issued by the KMC health department, whereas the water board would receive the overall income generated through this system. The committee members comprised of KMC Finance Department Deputy Managing Director Mairajuddin, Chief Engineer Bulk Iftikhar Ahmed, Chief Engineer WTM Anwar Saeed, Executive Engineer Ali Ahmed, secretary and chief law officer. Furthermore, a representative of Karachi Water Tankers Service and the water board would also be a part of this committee. TOR of the committee would be based on seven operational activities, namely procedure for approval of requests, allocation of area for new hydrants, available facilities for tanker services, protection of citizens, protection of infrastructure, minimal disturbance for citizens and environment during operations and rates for challan in order to increase the overall revenue of KWSB. The committee would also inspect all such hydrants and ensure that they were not connected with the existing KWSB water supply system through illegal means. It would formulate a policy to ensure that citizens were provided with clean drinking water on order to protect them from diseases caused due to underground boring water. The committee was directed to submit a report at MD Secretariat within seven working days for approval.
