20000118

KWSB flayed

for neglecting

North Karachi

industries

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Farooq Bakaly, Chairman, Council of Karachi's Association of Industry (CKAI), has condemned the attitude of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) for non-supply of water to the North Karachi Industrial Area for the last six months.

He said over 3500 industrial units operating in the industrial area for the last six months had been deprived of water altogether. There was no water supply even for normal use by the workers, what to say about factory consumption. As per available figures, export orders of billion of rupees had gone into the drain because of non-availability of water.

In fact, the water could not be supplied by the KWSB to the factories for industrial consumption but atleast the water should be supplied as essential utility for labourers and workers of the factories for their drinking and other routine usage, he added.

He said that CKAI was receiving complaints from the industries of this area stating that no water was being provided for daily consumption. It may be added that due to this problem, in the peak month of December various factories could not honour their commitments with foreign buyers scheduled for year closing as the workers of the factories could not endure the water famine.

Farooq Bakaly said that he was surprised to note that despite repeated request to KWSB, the authorities sitting there had paid no attention to this grave situation and had taken no action to over come this problem of scarcity of water in the North Karachi Industrial Area where mostly export oriented industrial units were situated.

Captain Moiz Khan, of North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (NKATI) has urged the government to take appropriate measure to restore water supply of North Karachi Industrial Area.

He expressed his satisfaction at the handing over of the administration of KWSB to Ranger and said this new administration should look into water shortage of the industrial area where industries were closing down.