Pakistan, Aug. 10 -- There is something almost absurd about factories cutting production beside an almost full reservoir. Yet that is the predicament confronting Hub, where locals say inadequate water supplies have persisted for two months, forcing units below capacity and prompting an SOS to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The Hub Chamber of Commerce and Industry warns that prolonged shortages could eventually threaten thousands of jobs.

Hub Dam was completed in 1981 as an inter-provincial asset serving Karachi and Lasbela. WAPDA's design provides 63.3 per cent of reservoir releases to Sindh and 36.7 per cent to Balochistan, including 100 million gallons a day for Karachi, 15 MGD for local industries and another 44 MGD for irrigation. ...