KARACHI : Sindh Rangers on Saturday handed over the control of nine water hydrants to Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) after nine years.

This was announced at a press conference jointly addressed by deputy Director General of Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) Brig Latif and KWSB Managing Director Ghulam Arif at Sindh Rangers Headquarters at Muslim Jinnah Courts Building in Karachi on Saturday.

Brig. Latif said that in April 1999, when Hub reservoir got dried up, Sindh government entrusted the responsibility to Rangers for supplying water to Karachi area that are District West (Baldia, Orangi, Surjani, Lyari, Keamari and SITE Town) and limited quantity to rest of Karachi.

He claimed that the government was spending huge amount of money for payments to contractors for gratis water distributor and Rangers were tasked to make the scheme self-generating/financing.

He elaborated that accordingly, a system was devised to generate funds and make it a viable project through streamlining the procedures and the Rangers had performed this task of national importance successfully for over nine years.

He said that total nine hydrants were placed under the control of Rangers from where 15 millions gallon (2.3 percent of total requirement) of water was supplied through contractors on daily service, about 800 gratis trips per day were provided to the residents of katchi abadies and affected areas.

He claimed that Rangers had spend approximately Rs30 million for upgrading the system and equipment at different hydrants. He said that now authorities had decided to transfer the responsibilities of water tanker service back to KWSB.

MD KWSB Ghulam Arif said that the board had installed 12 power generators at different placed for smooth supply of water during power load-shedding. He said that the Rangers had also handed over KWSB the list and the board would supply water as per this list. He said that now Karachi had 100mgd extra water and water shortage reported in some areas is due to poor water supply system and not owing to water shortage in Karachi. PPI (Pakistan Press International), 2008

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