KARACHI, March 9: The city suffered a shortfall of 61 million gallons of water from Indus source on Tuesday in the wake of a power breakdown which occurred at Dhabeji pumping station on Monday.
The short supply of water caused acute water shortage in about 15 towns giving boost to the sale of private water tankers there. Water supply in the remaining three towns - Orangi, Baldia and Site - which are hooked to the Hub dam supply system, however, remained normal on Tuesday.
Residents of the affected localities, particularly those situated at tail-end, told Dawn that they had no choice but to purchase water from private tankers at exorbitant rates ranging between Rs500 and 600 per tanker.
A senior official of the KWSB told Dawn that though the water supply from Dhabeji pumping station was normalized late on Monday night a number of localities might have either gone dry or received the supply with a low pressure on Tuesday.
He said that a complete power breakdown had occurred at Dhabeji pumping station at 5.55pm on Monday, KESC officials restored partial supply to two of the four pump houses by 7pm. He said that pumping of water to the tune of 200mgd had begun shortly after the restoration of partial supply.
The power supply to the other two pump houses was restored at 10.20pm and 11.30pm respectively on Monday and normal pumping of water had begun shortly afterwards, he said. However, he added, another power shutdown occurred at 12.10am and it was restored at 12.30am causing shortfall of 61 million gallons of water.
"We are appreciative of the KESC officials who immediately rushed to the site of the fault, restored the supply partially in about an hour and tried hard in rectifying the fault," he added.
Meanwhile, the KESC spokesman said that the power breakdown at Dhabeji pumping station had occurred at 5.55pm on Monday and complete power supply to the station was restored within 45 minutes from an extra feeder which the KESC had installed last year at a cost of Rs10 million.
RISING MAIN: For the immediate repair of Dhabeji's rising main which was burst on Monday, the KWSB Managing Director had deputed chief engineer (Bulk Supply) at the site with a directive to get the repair completed within 72 hours.
Sources said the city would continue to experience a short supply of water to the tune of 5 to 10 per cent from Dhabeji pumping station as long as the rising main was not repaired.
