In protest: SITE residents take to the streets, demand water, electricity

Over 200 people blocked the main Hub River Road on Saturday.

KARACHI: A large number of residents staged a protest against the persistent shortage of water and electricity in SITE and blocked the main Hub River Road for several hours on Saturday.

Over 200 people demonstrated against the unavailability of the utilities. “We have been facing water and electricity shortage since decades,” said Muhammad Khan, a resident of union council No. 4, Baldia. He added that the shortage of these two utilities is the outcome of the nexus of political and criminal mafias. They puncture the main pipelines to establish illegal water hydrants which results in the water shortage.

According to Khan, these criminal elements are also involved in stealing electricity through the kunda (illegal electricity connection) system.

The common man is not powerful enough to protest against these mafias, he said. He demanded that the government, law enforcement agencies and utility organisations take the matter in their hands and provide relief to the helpless residents. A spokesperson of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) told The Express Tribune that the area suffers from an acute shortage of water due to illegal water hydrants.

“These areas are extremely dangerous considering the presence of extremist elements,” he said, adding that even the law enforcement agencies are not capable of continuing the crackdown against the illegal hydrant mafia in this locality. He said that the KWSB has repeatedly requested the law enforcement agencies to initiate a crackdown against them and close down all illegal hydrants to help overcome the shortage.

On the other hand, the spokesperson of K-Electric said Baldia Town suffers from a high prevalence of electricity theft. “Due to the kundas, the K-Electric transmission lines become overloaded that results in unannounced prolonged load-shedding in the area,” he said.

During a meeting held last week at the Commissioner House, the spokesperson of Karachi police chief said that the demographic composition of Baldia Town and other adjacent areas, due to the presence of militants, serves as a hindrance in carrying out the crackdown against water and electricity mafia.

“The TTP is efficiently functional in this locality and we have to eliminate these extremist elements first in order to carry out the operation against water and electricity mafia,” he had said during the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2014.