That we are extremely irresponsible in relation to the value of water is a fact that has found its best expression from the bursting of an 84-inch water line on University Road.
The pipe line was badly damaged almost two weeks ago, causing widespread disruption across Karachi. It is important to identity the reason or reasons that led to a situation in which affected residents were finding it extremely difficult to arrange minimum water against their daily requirements.
It has been learnt that the damage occurred when the pipeline burst during the ongoing construction work for the Red Line project on University.
Unfortunately, however, repair work began four days later owing to some unknown reasons. It is now increasingly clear that the execution of Red Line project is not being carried out properly as the engineers and other technical people involved in this project did not take the 84-inch water line under the surface into account while carrying out excavation work.
Needless to say, this incident caused by sheer negligence or incompetence, or both, has caused a loss of millions of gallons of water, badly affecting water supply to neighbourhoods such as Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Safoora, Bahadurabad, Saddar, Lyari, and M A Jinnah Road.
The value of water is clearly immense. That this resource is highly valuable for an individual, community, and economy is a fact. Unfortunately, however, water as a resource can often be neglected or taken for granted particularly in this city of teeming millions.
The University Road incident is a strong case in point. The authorities, particularly the Sindh government, must take all the required steps aimed at taking the erring officials to task with a view to avoiding a repeat of what has happened on the University Road on November 29 during the construction of Red Line mass transit project.
Shahid Farooqui (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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