KARACHI, March 8: Almost all areas of the city would experience water shortage on Tuesday owing to a major power breakdown at Dhabeji pumping station and the resultant pipeline burst on Monday.

The shortage is likely to persist for about four days owing to repair work of the pipeline. Pumping of water to the tune of 450 million gallons from the installation came to a halt at 5:55pm due to technical fault in a grid station.

One of the seven rising mains, supplying water to the city from pumping station, burst when water rushed back to the source due to the sudden power failure. Electric supply was restored nearly two hours later.

Barring a few localities hooked to the Hub source, all the city areas would face water shortage in the coming days. Sources estimated that it would take the engineers and technicians at least four days to get the pipeline repaired for a normal supply.

The city would receive a short supply up to 5-10 per cent from Dhabeji station which pumps a bulk water supply of 450 million gallons per day to the city.

The city has already suffered a shortfall of 40 million gallons of water by Monday evening and if the power supply is not restored fully, it would further face a shortage of 11 million gallons per hour, according to a senior official of the KWSB.

He told Dawn that the power breakdown caused jerks and intense back pressure in one of the rising mains, 210 feet above the ground, which ultimately burst at 6:15pm.

Asked about the impact of the suspension of water supply from Dhabeji pumping station, he said that it depended on how quickly the power supply was restored.

Meanwhile, KESC officials managed to restore power supply partially to the installation by 7:45pm enabling it to resume pumping. Pumping of 200 million gallons was carried out in the following hours.

The KESC was trying to rectify the fault in the grid station till last reports came in. KESC officials were confident that normal power supply would be restored before midnight.

"Even if the pump house starts getting its full power supply in a couple of hours, the tail-end areas of the city will remain deprived of water on Tuesday whereas other localities may receive water with a low pressure," the KWSB official maintained, adding that as a matter of fact, the city would continue to experience a shortage until the completion of repair work on the burst rising main.

De-watering process of the damaged 4.5km-long rising main was to be completed by Tuesday afternoon before any repair work, which is supposed to take at least 72 hours, could be carried out. The city, therefore, would be able to receive normal water supply not before noon on Friday, he added.