Sukkur residents to get potable water by June, 2017

NSUSC operations director says water supply project is currently underway

SUKKUR: The North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) is involved in a water supply project and the residents of Sukkur will hopefully get potable drinking water by June, 2017, claimed the utility’s director of operations, Masar Dayo. He was talking to members of the Sukkur Development Alliance (SDA) Thursday evening.

According to him, most of the water pipelines were laid in 1954, 1964 and 1971, through which only four million gallons of water was being supplied. “After increasing its capacity, we are now supplying 16 million gallons of water to the citizens and by June, 2017, after completion of the project, we will be supplying 30 million gallons of potable water to the citizens,” he said.



Presently, we are supplying raw water to the residents, Dayo explained, adding that this does not mean the utility is supplying contaminated water. At some places, he said, the water pipelines have been damaged, due to which waste water has been mixed in the clean water but other than that no contaminated water is being supplied by them.



“Funds of Rs4 billion were allocated to NSUSC for supplying clean water to the residents of Sukkur, Khairpur, Rohri, Larkana and other areas but, in Sukkur, the project remains unfinished while the residents of Khairpur are getting potable water,” he lamented. As far as the drainage system of the city is concerned, he said no funds have been allocated for it since 2009. “Therefore, we have requested the government to allocate funds for the megaproject of drainage [repair]. If the funds are not allocated, Sukkur will be inundated by 2018 due to overflowing drains,” he warned.

Ruling out any corruption in the utility provider, Dayo said the utility has failed to come up to the expectations of the people due to other reasons. The officer painted a very bright picture for Sukkur’s future, where machines will carry out sweeping, cleaning of drains and unclogging of manholes.

Earlier, SDA chairperson Jawed Memon pinpointed the civic problems residents have been facing. “Due to lack of interest of the NSUSC, we were forced to create the SDA and register our protest against the worst civic conditions of the city,” he said. Memon added that the utility is providing contaminated water in the city, due to which people are falling prey to waterborne diseases. Heaps of garbage can be found everywhere in the city, which is due to the recruitment of white collar persons as sanitary workers on political grounds, he claimed.



“The sanitary workers used to leave sewage on the main roads for days and resultantly it has become a permanent problem for the people,” he said.

Inviting the attention of the officer towards the choked manholes and overflowing drains, Memon said that sewerage water accumulates in most localities of the city, especially in market areas, which is quite disturbing for shopkeepers and people. He demanded that the NSUSC induct at least two citizens on its board of directors so that they can brief the senior officials about the factual position for future strategy.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2016.