KARACHI, Feb 22: Water supply to almost entire city will be affected badly on Sunday owing to a major power breakdown at Dhabeji Pump House (phase-III) on Saturday.

A spokesman for the city government’s Water and Sanitation (W&S) department said that the power supply to the pump house was suspended at 8.30am and could not be restored till 7.00pm on Saturday. He said the breakdown had already led to a shortfall of 40 million gallons of water till 6pm.

Pumping of water to Karachi from Dhabeji’s phase-III, having three pumps of 25mgd each, came to a grinding halt with the suspension of power supply, he said adding that the KESC officials had already been informed about the fault. He said that the KESC staff, attributing the problem to a cable fault, were busy rectifying the fault.

Asked about the impact of the short supply of water, a senior official of the W&S department said that various parts of the metropolis would either go completely dry or receive scant supply on Sunday.

He confirmed that the city had already received a short supply to the tune of 40mgd till 6pm on Saturday.

Apprehended that all parts of the city could be affected badly by the shortage on Sunday, he said that if power supply to the pump house could not be restored by Saturday evening, the position of the sprawling townships of formerly district West — Orangi, Baldia, North Karachi, Surjani — would experience a serious situation on Sunday and Monday in the wake of already a short supply from the Indus source.

These townships, as well as Shershah and Site industrial area whose supply from the Hub source is suspended since October, 2002, were being supplied water from Indus source via Ajmair Nagri and Board office pumping stations after a gap of every five days.

With a view to diverting Indus water to the localities hooked to the Hub Dam source, the W&S department had introduced water- holiday system in October last for the localities getting their supply from the Indus source.

As such, the localities where the supply remained suspended on Saturday included entire PECHS, KDA Scheme-1, Sharfabad, Karachi Television Centre, KACH Society, Civic Centre, Mehmoodabad No 5, Liaquatabad, Gharibabad, Furqanabad, Bandhani Colony, parts of Nazimabad, Liaquat National Hospital and Aga Khan Hospital.