The water shortage may reach a point of no return for Karachi soon because the current water inventory and ageing infrastructure can’t meet the ever-increasing demand.
Karachi needs over a 1250 million gallons daily (mgd). The city gets merely 550mgd from River Indus and 100mgd from Hub, leaving a 600mgd unmet demand. As if it wasn’t bad enough, the leakage in the ageing infrastructure wastes 150mgd. The Karachi water supply system is installed about 100 kilometres away in Dhabeji. The latest water supply infrastructure, K-III, was installed in 2006 to supply 100mgd water to Karachi. And, in the last 15 years, not a single project has been implemented.
The KWSB Chief Engineer Zafar Palijo, recapping the history of all projects, stated: “the Phase-I of the 50mgd water supply was started from Dhabeji Pumping Station in 1956. The Phase-II of 50mgd was started in 1971. Phase-III of 50mgd was formed in 1978, adding Phase-IV of 100mgd was started in 1984. The water supply projects K-II and K-III were completed in 1998 and 2006, respectively.”
Commenting on a recent video at Dhabeji Pumping Station, the KWSB chief engineer said the water supply machinery is around 100years old and needs replacement. “We are discussing some plans for the rehabilitation of pumping stations with the World Bank. KWSB teams have prepared some proposals for execution with the assistance of World Bank,” Palijo added.
In 2002, City District Government Karachi decided to initiate K-IV (Bulk Water Supply Project) for Karachi. It was a project funded by the federal, Sindh and city governments.
The authorities had hired the consultancy firm M/s Osmani & Co for preparing a feasibility report of the project. In 2007, the consultancy firm M/s Osmani & Co prepared the Planning Commission PC-II of the project related to its design. The group decided to procure water for Karachi from Keenjhar Lake, which is 121Kilometer away from Karachi. It was a first experience for the authorities to get water from any other source except Dhabeji.
In the first phase, which concluded in 2018, 260mgd water is to be supplied to Karachi. Subsequent steps will include Additional capacities in phase two, 260mg and phase three 130mgd. Phase-I was completed in 2018, Phase-II in 2022 and Phase-III in 2026.
WHAT IS A REASON?
The consultant company OCL had a design flaw in the K-IV project. It was not executed in 2002.
In 2016, the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah inaugurated the PPP government’s contract to execute Frontier Works Organisation-FWO. It was an estimated cost of Rs25.5billion, which the federal and provincial governments equally shared.
After 2016, it was surfaced that the consultant OCL had made blunders in K-IV design. The Sindh government had made several committees to investigate the matter.
The committees found that the consultant OCL had made a wrong choice of the route, which is impossible to bring water to Karachi.
Later, the Sindh government decided to vet the design through third-party vetting. It hired M/s NESPAK for vetting the K-IV design.
In the vetting report, the M/s NESPAK Limited decided that the consultant was wrong in choosing the water supply route.
The report stated: the current route of the K-IV water supply is not possible for execution, as it consists of hilly and rocky areas, which is the vulnerable route to bring water supply to Karachi.
The report said: heavy pumps and powerhouses are needed to flow water supply as the water travels through gravity. However, the recommended route includes high mountains and hilly areas.
In 2020, the Sindh government made a review committee headed by the then Sindh Local Government Secretary to assess the M/s NESPAK Design Review Report.
The committee, in its finding, was given an edge to the consultant and provided a time of two months to modify the current design and submit a revised review report. But, the consultant M/s OCL has failed to do so. In 2021, the federal government has come into action over the dismal condition of the water supply project and handed over the task to WAPDA.
Recently, the WAPDA authorities, after reviewing the entire status of the project, stated that it is not possible to carry on with the same route.
They said: it is not possible to supply 650mgd water to Karachi shortly. They decided to work on supplying 260mgd water to Karachi by 2025. But by 2025, Karachi’s requirement would have touched 1500mgd.
With less than 20 per cent of the required supply, the threat of a water is looming in Karachi.
