Residents forced to purchase water tanker for Rs3500 from mafia
Zubair Qureshi
With temperatures soaring up and acute heat taking the residents of Islamabad into its grip, residents of Sector G-13/1 have become the most adversely-affected community as the main water filtration plant there has gone dysfunctional.
Water scarcity has hit them so hard that now they are forced to purchase water from tankers and the tanker mafia is charging them as much as from 3,000 to Rs 3,500 for one tanker.
The operator of the water filtration plant on the other hand claims the water level has gone deep down resulting in its non-availability.
Most of the residents being old and retired government servants with their children doing jobs during the day time are feeling this acute shortage and they are now spending their hard-earned savings on purchasing bottled water or tanker water.
As the holy month of Ramzan-ul-Mubarak was a little cool, thanks to rains and winds, they did not feel its shortage as much as they are feeling it now with the mercury rising to 95 F and frankly speaking there is no one to listen to their grievances.
Ahmed Din Sheikh a retired officer of the Foreign Office of Pakistan while talking to Pakistan Observer said in the days of pandemic it was not advisable to let the tankers’ people in.
Water filtration plant in the G-13/1 was a great blessing but as the temperature started turning warmer it went out of order and despite our repeated complaints and calls the concerned people are not showing any interest either to arrange water for the filtration plant from some other source or get it rectified.
How long shall the residents of the federal capital continue to be at the mercy of the tanker mafia or will they be forced to purchase water, he asked.
Another resident Amna Bibi said she had voted the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the last elections with the hope it would resolve water issues of the locality but with every passing year, the water scarcity becomes acute and the “PTI government looks least interested in supplying sufficient quantity of water for our daily needs.”
The Sector G-13 is a newly developed sector that has seen development and expansion into four sub-sectors in a matter of days.
Unless we get a regular supply of water from the Khanpur dam, water scarcity will remain a burning sore, said Aurangzeb Afroz, another resident of the sector.
