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KARACHI, Nov 12: A Rs 1.1 billion plan to undertake repairs of the 14-mile-long Hub Canal and to install meters in the city’s pipeline network has been approved by the federal government.
The other component of the plan is to plug leakages of pipelines.
The city, at present, is supplied 470 mgd of water (435 from Indus and 35 from Hub Dam source). But around 33 per cent water is wasted daily, either through leakages or due to water theft cases.
Giving salient features of the plan, the KWSB managing director, Brig Mohammad Behram Khan, told Dawn that with the installation of meters at various selected points of pipelines, the KWSB officials would not only be in a position to check the wastage of water through leakages and water theft cases but would also regulate the water supply position of each and every locality of the city on a scientific basis.
For instance, if the quota of a locality is 10 mgd of water and there is a complaint that it is not being supplied its fixed quota of water, the meters to be installed at the beginning and end of a pipeline meant for supplying water to the said locality, would automatically show the data indicating how much water that locality is being provided.
Terming the plan of fixing meters in the pipelines a ‘scientific method’ of regulating the water supply scheme, Brig Behram hoped that with the installation of meters in the pipelines’ network, complaints of less than fixed quota of water would automatically be redressed, besides it would help the KWSB in regulating the water supply of the metropolis in a much better way.
The process of identifying all those places where such meters are to be installed has already been geared up. As soon as those places are identified and the project’s cost is received from the project, there will be no delay in executing the plan.
HUB CANAL: About the repairing of Karachi water supply canal, commonly known as Hub canal, he said that the repair of the canal and the pipelines’ leakages would also help save considerable quantity of water and thus further improve the city’s overall water supply position.
It may be pointed out that Hub Canal, which is situated at about 11 miles downstream the head regulator, has remained idle during the last two years owing to the drying up of the Hub Dam source in July 1999, as result of which its lining has worn out at a number of places.
Weed growth and sludge is another snag in the conveyance system and though concrete lining of the canal was carried at some places in the past, weeds are a constant hindrance in the flow of water, affecting the velocity of the current.
The canal was previously maintained by Wapda and was handed over to the KWSB in May.
