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KARACHI, Aug 21: Water supply to the city from the Hub dam will come to a halt in the next 10 to 12 days as the water level in the dam’s reservoir has receded to mere 279 R-L (Reservoir Level) as against its dead storage level of 278 RL.
Water supply to the city from the Hub source was earlier stopped in December 1999 and was restored on Aug 22, last year.
The dam’s reservoir level, however, started depleting at fast pace following restoration of the supply, last year, as the dam’s catchment area remained dry in the current monsoon season.
Well-placed sources told Dawn that though the water supply from the Hub source already has, technically, been stopped because whatever meagre quantity of water currently being supplied to the city by the Wapda officials, manning the regulator at the dam’s reservoir, was of no help for the localities hooked to the Hub source as the distribution of such a such a little quantity of water was absolutely unmanageable.
“The city, at present, was being supplied only 12 million gallons of water per day as against 45 mgd after every two days for three consecutive days although the high-level committee on Hub water that had met in the last week of July had asked the Wapda officials to release 45 mgd of water to the Hub canal after every two days for three consecutive days and at that time water level in the dam’s reservoir was 281 RL,” the sources said, adding that the city during its current turn of getting water had received only 22 mgd during the last two days.
“In fact, whatever little quantity of water was currently being released in the Hub canal for the city by the Wapda officials was, perhaps, being done under the pressure of the high-level committee whose chairman is Sindh’s additional chief secretary Shehzado Shaikh and its members include irrigation secretaries of both Sindh and Balochistan,” the sources said.
AREAS TO SUFFER: The localities which would suffer on account of stoppage of supply from the Hub source include not only the city’s Western part’s sprawling townships of Baldia, Orangi, North Karachi, Surjani, parts of SITE’s residential and industrial areas but also some other parts, mostly belonging to the city’s Central part, which are getting their supply from Indus source as in the wake of total closure of supply from the Hub source, the KWSB will have no choice but to slash their quota for diverting the same to the areas hooked to the Hub source.
Water supply to the city from the Hub source started dwindling from 38 mgd to only 12 mgd in mid-July following water level in the dam’s reservoir had reduced to just 280 R-L.
Apprehending that water supply to the city from the Hub source will be completely stopped in the next 10 to 12 days, the KWSB officials admitted that “it would be a herculean task for us to ensure smooth and regular supply to the areas hooked to the Hub source as in doing so we will, definitely, have no other alternative but to curtail the supply of other areas hooked to Indus source of water for diverting Indus water to the localities which will go dry in the wake of stoppage of supply from the Hub source.”
Asked if any contingency plan was being chalked out to meet the water requirement of the localities which would go dry in the wake of drying up of the Hub source, they said that as far as KWSB was concerned arrangements were being made to divert the Indus source water to the affected areas through Ajmair Nagri pumping station while the Rangers has been assigned the task of providing water to these localities and from water storage tanks.
A number of ‘Awami’ tanks which the Rangers had constructed in 1999-2000 under the KWSB’s water management crisis programme when the city’s supply from the Hub source was earlier stopped, have become redundant owing to their poor maintenance and as such a huge amount would be required to revive them, the sources added.
