City faces more power and water outages

WASA official says 14 new tubewells to be installed in three weeks.

LAHORE: Parts of the city were subjected to long periods without water alongside increased electricity outages on Sunday, despite attempts by the government to ensure an uninterrupted supply of fuel to generators installed to power tubewells.

Areas of Johar Town, Samanabad, Firdaus Park, Nonarian, Sabzazar and several housing colonies near Thokar Niaz Beg were without water and electricity for several hours on Sunday, though they are supposedly supplied water by tubewells attached to generators. Residents also complained of a low-pressure supply of water.

Generators are installed at 140 of the 466 tubewells in Lahore, and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif recently ordered petrol stations of the city district government to ensure that these generators do not run out of fuel.

Water and Sanitation Agency Deputy Managing Director (Operations and Maintenance) Naveed Perveez said several areas of the city had problems with the water supply during the day. He said WASA had recently replaced four out-of-order tubewells, while 14 new ones would become operational in Lahore over the next three weeks. He said that WASA had proposed the installation of 50 more tubewells to improve supply. He said that WASA was renting 30 of the 140 generators that power tubewells.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2012.