The CEO of Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC), Syed Basit Salim, was confronted on Tuesday by a group of 35 elderly women residents of DHA over the lack of water provided to their houses. What started out as an unruly argument opposite the information desk was rescued after all the protesting ladies were redirected to the CBC boardroom.
“Every morning I wake up without a single drop of water in my house,” angrily shouted Rehana, who has been living in Defence for 30 years. Sajida, a resident in Phase IV was the next to speak and claimed that for the last 24 years she had not received enough water to last for more than 15 minutes. “We pay full taxes and get absolutely nothing in return, is this the country we fought for? A country in which elderly ladies must beg for water in the most prestigious residential area of the city?” she concluded. “If this is the state in Defence, one can only imagine how bad it is in other, less funded areas” said Ayesha, a resident of Phase II.
“A foreign tanker mafia has surfaced due to the incompetency of CBC,” another frustrated protester explained. “Business opportunities have been presented to people who have the ability to provide water” she continued.
A total amount of Rs12,000 is paid in taxes every month for water and not a drop is given to over 70 per cent of the resident tax payers. A separate cost of buying water from these tanker mafia agencies costs around Rs12,000 to Rs25,000 a month depending on the size of the house. “The cost of water is increasing per annum due to the inability of our officials to provide us with the services they promise to us,” claimed a resident of Phase V.
In response to all these complaints, the CEO noted down all the addresses and promised a change. “Nobody here today will have the same complaint about water tomorrow and we will strive to make the change that all the taxpayers deserve,” he said to an audience that had absolutely no faith in his words. “We are working on a mobile phone text message-based communication system between the residents of Defence and the CBC. This will ensure that every member is heard and no house is without water,” Basit concluded.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2011.
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