Drinking water supply to Hyderabad suspended till January 10: repairing of Kotri Barrage gates begins

Kotri Barrage Chief Engineer Manzoor Ahmed Shaikh has said the water supply from Kotri Barrage has been suspended from December 20 due to annual repair of the barrage gates. He stated this while addressing a Press conference at his office here on Wednesday. He said for the last 50 years the water supply is suspended for repair and cleaning of the gates every year, the water supply was suspended on December 25 night and likely to reopen on January 10.
He said this year, the repair started on December 20, which is expected to end on January 4 or 5. The Wasa MD, who was also present in the Press conference, said that Wasa had to supply 57 million gallons water to Hyderabad City daily of which 50 million is filtered and rest unfiltered, adding the water is stored in ponds having a capacity 400 million gallons, but this year, it was decided that the ponds should be desilted. He said: "At present, we had water for three to four days and while 12 to 13 million gallons of water would be taken from downstream of the Kotri Barrage, and it is fit for human consumption."
Meanwhile, Human Rights Safety Commission moved an application to Honourable Chief Justice, High Court of Sindh, Karachi, and Honourable Judge for Circuit Court, Hyderabad, requesting for suitable action against the concerned staff of HDA and Wasa Hyderabad for non supply of drinking water to three tehsil of Hyderabad District- Hyderabad, Latifabad and Qasimabad for last nine days.