Electricity outages disrupt water supply
A man supplies water from a tanker in a neighbourhood in Karachi where advent of summers means water shortage and added expenses of purchasing it from tankers. photo: Jalal Qureshi/express
A lack of coordination over the power outages between Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) and Water and Sewerage Agency (WASA) has been creating water shortage situation in Hyderabad.
Hyderabad Commissioner Nadeemur Rehman Memon taking notice of the public complaints summoned officials of both the public utilites at his office on Thursday.
At the meeting WASA's acting managing director Anjum Saeed accused HESCO for carrying out prolonged and unscheduled outages. According to him, WASA's water supply pumping stations stop operating several times each day because of the outages.
The commissioner asked both the utilities to share water supply and power outages schedules with each other for better collaboration.
HESCO CEO Noor Ahmed Soomro, and other officials of his company pointed out that WASA has been defaulting payment of power bills. The WASA has a total of 71 electricity connections including 20 connections with AMR and as many with defected meters.
Meanwhile, Qaumi Awami Tehreek Chairman Ayaz Latif Palijo has said that prolonged power outages across Sindh have made the lives of the people miserable.
Palijo said that due to prolonged power outages, hospitals have postponed surgeries.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2022.