WASA workers to shut down water supply on Feb 13

Workers say they haven't been paid in four months

HYDERABAD: As the problem of delayed payment of salaries crops up again, workers of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) have threatened of suspending Hyderabad's water supply and drainage in protest on February 13. The employees union of Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA), the parent organisation of WASA, has given the authorities a February 12 deadline to release the unpaid salaries of last four months.

"We will shut the water supply and drainage systems on February 13 if the provincial government and HDA doesn't release the salaries and pensions," warned Behram Khan Chang, the union's president, at a general workers' meeting which echoed with chants decrying recurrence of the problem several times each year.



The union vowed that a complete shutdown would be ensured. The union's leader, Niaz Hussain Chandio, blamed the authorities for being ‘enemies of the labourers’. "We are told time and time again after each protest that the problem will be resolved permanently but it hasn't happened for many years," he claimed.

The workers will shut down the water filtration plants as well as the water supply and drainage pumping stations in the city. The officials of HDA and Wasa could not be contacted for their versions.