After the load shedding increased to around 18 hours in Lahore, water supply in the city has been suspended as majority of the tube wells of Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) were switched off, including those running on electricity and diesel, according to reports.
According to sources, the 344 WASA tube wells running on electricity are functioning only for six hours which reduced the water supply to the city to less than 20 percent. While out of 116 tube wells which run on diesel only 60 are functional while the remaining 56 were not working due to non-availability of diesel.
Residents of various areas of Lahore are facing hardships due to unannounced 12 to 18 hours of electricity load shedding in the City for the past few weeks. Due to unannounced load shedding, the non-availability of water supply in majority of city areas had become a routine matter and 10 to 12 hours water suspension had ruined the lives of Lahoris.
The residents of Ravi Road, Ichhra, Rehmanpura, Sandah Khurd, Chauburji, Samanabad, Walled City, Green Town, and Wahdat Road are facing 10 to 14 hours of water suspension while the other areas of Lahore are facing six to eight hours of water suspension.
Faizan Qazi, a resident of College Road, told reporters that he had been going to his office without taking a bath for the past three days because of load shedding and the non-availability of water. He said the government should take some pity on the people, who are becoming psychological patients due to the crisis
Sources in WASA told reporters that there are around 460 water tube wells of WASA in all the nine towns of the city and generators were installed on 116 of them. They revealed that in every budget of WASA, a huge amount was allocated for diesel to run the generators during electricity outages. Sources added that almost 60 percent fuel given for generators, had been sold to local oil agencies by the WASA officials instead of using it in generators and only 40 per cent fuel was available for the generators, which was being used during the load shedding hours.
However, top officials cited unannounced load shedding as reason for the chaos while their subordinates complained of irregular fuel supply for generators. A tube well operator, seeking anonymity, said the agency had fallen short of fuel. Moreover, the authorities have not paid attention to repairing out-of-order tube wells, leaving people in the lurch, he added. Fuel theft by officials has also been reported in the agency but the high-ups have never bothered to take action against those responsible.