KARACHI, Dec 25: In a bid to escape the Sindh government’s ban, operators of private hydrants in the city have come up with a novel idea to keep their water business running — they have built their own water reservoirs in the most unlikely of all places — houses.

Dawn has learnt that the private hydrants have built water reservoirs and water distribution chambers in some houses of different Katchi Abadis of the city and have established a parallel water distribution system for meeting water demand of industrial zones and water-deficit residential areas.

The method adopted by these private hydrants for ensuring uninterrupted water supply to permanent consumers, especially in the Site industrial area, is something like that.The private reservoirs, built in the vicinity of some industrial units, are filled with water drawn from two different sources — wells and illegal water connections taken from the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) pipelines.

Then, the water is supplied to industrial units through private pipelines laid down between water sellers’ reservoirs and underground tanks of the industrial units, Dawn has been told.

A visit to the Site industrial area would show that some private water sellers have drilled boreholes and have constructed reservoirs on residential plots in Pak Colony, Old Golimar, Mewashah, Manghopir, Site, Lyari Expressway, Orangi, near Regent Cinema areas.

They supply the water through pipelines they have laid down between their reservoirs and the industrial units of adjoining areas.

The pipelines connecting the private reservoirs with the industrial units’ underground tanks are visible at many places. Most of these pipelines have been laid down under the Manghopir Bridge at the Lyari River.

Some water sellers have even installed most advanced equipments for distributing the subsoil water. They have installed meters to monitor the quantity of water they are supplying to industrial units so that they can be charged accordingly.

Some insiders have told Dawn that business is flourishing because of a shortage of water in the city.