KWSB fails to provide water to imambargahs

Residents complain of overflowing sewage

KARACHI: While the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) claimed to have geared up for Muharram Ashura, water seems to have dried up in the pipelines, leaving hundreds of households and imambargahs in the city without water.

A resident of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 4, Muhammad Abbas, told The Express Tribune that not a single drop of water had trickled down in his tank during the last two weeks. “It became extremely difficult for us to carry out our religious obligations during Ashura,” he said, adding that even the imambargah in the area was deprived of water.

Another resident of Safar Omega View Block 13, Zubair, said that water supply in their apartments generally remained erratic. “Ashura is about to start and we have no water in our taps,” he said. Meanwhile, a security guard of imambargah, Sahibuz Zaman, in Gulistan-e-Jauhar’s Block 14 said that the imambargah was always deprived of water. “We have to get water tankers to fill our tanks,” he said, adding that during Ashura getting those tankers wasn’t an easy task. “We have to suffer this every year,” he said and added that this year they received free of charge water tankers from the KWSB. However, he said their supply too was irregular.



Even in North Karachi, the supply of water remained erratic and sewage kept flowing on the roads. A resident of North Karachi’s Sector 11-L said that sewage kept flowing in their area during the first eight days of Muharram and added that now, when the Ashura was just around the corner, no cleanliness measures had been taken by the KWSB.

On the other hand, the KWSB Managing Director Khalid Mehmood directed its officials to take emergency measures to clean the sewerage, especially those near imambargahs and mosques. He also directed all the superintendent and executive engineers to remain in touch with the representatives of imambargahs and address their water and sewage woes.



According to the KWSB spokesperson Rizwan Ahmed, it was possible that there were a few complaints which they weren’t aware of, but that could be addressed. He said that the deputy commissioners (DC) and assistant commissioners in respective districts were on board and they had already arranged a meeting with the focal persons of all the Muharram’s processions that are supposed to take place. “We have already provided two million gallons of water through water tankers to different sabeels, processions and imambargahs,” he said, adding that the DCs had also been provided with 55 water tankers.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2018.