KARACHI: Filter plants at pumping stations ordered
By Azizullah Sharif
KARACHI, July 10: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad has directed the KWSB to install filter plants at all the local pumping stations, numbering around 131, so as to ensure that the water being supplied to the citizens is clean and of best quality.
According to well-placed sources, the governor is of the view that mini-filter plants must be installed at all the pumping stations of the city so that the chances of water getting contaminated at any place in between the KWSB two filter plants (COD filter plant and Hub pumping station’s water treatment plant) and the local pumping stations are eliminated by re-filtering the water at the local pumping stations.
With the installation of mini-pumping stations at the local pumping stations not only the KWSB’s consumer will get clean and healthy water but the complaints of contaminated water will be minimized to a greater extent, the sources said, adding that the city government’s caretaker, Fazalur Rehman, has urged the KWSB Managing Director, Brig Iftikhar Haider, to expedite the process of installing filter plants at the local pumping stations so that the citizens might start getting clean water at the earliest.
When the KWSB managing director was contacted by Dawn to know the measures being taken by the KWSB with regard to the governor’s directives of installing filter plants at local pumping stations, he said that he had already asked the officials concerned to expedite the process of acquiring and installing the filter plants at the pumping stations because by doing so the KWSB would be able to provide quality water to its consumers.
Terming the governor’s directives of installing filter plants at the local pumping stations a bold and timely decision, he said that the task assigned by the governor was quite practicable as almost all the local pumping stations had electricity and reservoirs and thus the filter plants’ installation work could be executed without any problem.
Asked how much funds would be required to acquire filter plants for all the local pumping stations, he said that it would not cost more than Rs300 million.
To another query, he said that the KWSB’s efforts would be to import those filter plants which would be maintenance free and would continue to function for a longer duration.
When asked how much time would be required by the KWSB in installing the filter plants at over 100 local pumping stations, he said that since the filter plants installation process at the pumping stations was neither cumbersome nor time consuming, the KWSB’s engineers would not be facing any difficulty in installing them as soon as they were imported from abroad or arranged locally.
