Illegal hydrants: over 431 million gallons water being stolen monthly

Over 431,040,000 gallons water is being stolen monthly via 51,840 tankers from illegal hydrants established near Chakra Goth and Ibrahim Hyderi. Powerful mafia, with the help of influential people, started earning Rs 32,736,000 per month. Mostly skin and abdominal disease patients visit Sindh Government Hospital Ibrahim Hyderi, as the availability of potable water is quit difficult, a senior staff nurse in emergency ward of the hospital said here on Monday.
The Sindh Government hospital is the only hospital for the entire coastal belt of Karachi. First there should be more hospitals in Bin Qasim Town to help the people; secondly potable water should be made available for the entire Bin Qasim Town, the staff nurse maintained.
One of the reasons of the unavailability of potable water is illegal water hydrants. They steal the major share of the Bin Qasim Town population, which adds to the misery of the local residents. Many times these illegal hydrants had been raided and sealed, but the mafia is so powerful that the authorities started playing in the hands of the mafia. Whereas Ibrahim Hyderi and Chakra Goth turned into a 'Maidan-e-Karbala', women and children are seen in search of water in long queues.
According to a survey and investigation conducted by Pakistan Fisher folk Forum (PFF) it has been revealed that millions of gallons of water share of Chakra Goth and Ibrahim Hyderi has been stolen by the illegal hydrants. The shortage of water in the Chakra Goth and Ibrahim Hyderi reaches a dangerous level but no avail. The survey further revealed that daily the tanker mafia using 728 small tankers bought 4,368,000 gallons of water from hydrant owners of Rs 291,200 only. The monthly figure comes to 131,040,000 gallons of water for Rs 8,736,000 only paid to hyderant owners.
Another 1,000 big tankers of tanker mafia are getting 10,000,000 gallons of water daily from hydrant owners and paying Rs 800,000 only. The government, the water board and all other related departments all know about it but nobody takes any action in this regard.
The local residents appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take a suo motu action against the water board and other related departments involved in corruption of illegal water selling from these water hydrants. The local residents are forced to use dirty water or sea water and are becoming victims of skin as well as stomach diseases.