KARACHI: K-III water project to be completed in time
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 4: The K-III project, which will supply an additional 100 million gallons of water daily, will be completed a few weeks prior to its scheduled date of completion i.e. June 2006.
This was stated by Corps Commander Sindh, Lt-Gen Syed Ather Ali, who was taking to newsmen at the K-III project’s pumping station being built North-East of Karachi.
He earlier had a detailed aerial inspection of various components of the project such as Gujjo to Gharo canal, Gharo Creek canal, Gharo-Dhabeji canal, Dhabeji high point pipeline and conduit, tunnel bypass conduit, tunnel bypass siphon, Pipri to NEK conduit, Syphon-19, 20 link pipeline, etc.
Brig Junaid, KWSB Managing Director Brig Iftikhar Haider, K-III Project Manager Misbahuddin Fareed, deputy managing directors, Syed Israr Zaidi, Suleman Chandio, Arshad Javed and chief engineers Asudomal, Khalid Malik and other senior officials were present.
Expressing satisfaction over the project’s pace of work, Lt-Gen Ather Ali said Chinese and 13 other contracting firms associated with the mega project had done a very good job.
About 80 per cent work on the project had already been completed while the remaining 20 per cent would be accomplished a few weeks before its scheduled date of completion, he said.
Commending the KWSB officers and other staff for having a high state of morale while executing a project of such dimension, Lt-Gen Ali said: “A lot of credit goes to Brig Haider and his hardcore team, which has managed the entire project, and the contractors especially Chinese for building complex structures.”
Referring to the recent incidence of deaths and sickness due to consumption of contaminated water in some parts of the city, he deplored that people had holed pipelines for getting illegal connections, and since the workmanship was quite poor, sewage water got mixed up with potable water, causing deaths and sickness.
In this regard, he said that while people should be more aware of the hazards and consequences of acquiring illegal water connections, the local administration should take cognizance of the fact that such illegal activity caused deaths and sickness and hence there should be a strict check.
Admitting that the KWSB was not filtering cent per cent water, he said unfiltered water was continuously being supplied from the Hub source for 25 years.
However, the corps commander said the KWSB had recently installed and commissioned a filter plant at Hub with the help of the World Bank, and the localities hooked to it were now being supplied filtered water.
He expressed hope that with the setting up of two more filter plants — the K-III project’s filter plant and the Pipri filter plant — the total capacity of all filtering plants would expectantly increase from 310 mgd to 425 mgd.
WATER LOSSES: Deploring that around one-third of the city’s total water supply, which came to around 160 mgd was being wasted daily owing to transmission and distribution losses, leaking pipelines, etc, Lt-Gen Ather Ali said the authority had already submitted a PC-I for plugging leakages of pipelines and repairing the entire system.
But, since the project will cost more than Rs2 billion, work on it will begin as soon after the required funds are received. It will be completed in one-and-half years to two years, he said.
Referring to the KWSB’s ongoing campaign against illegal hydrants, he said 123 unauthorised hydrants had already been removed. Water supply position had resultantly improved considerably in Baldia and North Karachi.
K-IV PROJECT: When a newsmen apprised Lt-Gen Syed Ather Ali that the KWSB would not be able to go on with the K-IV project for getting 100 mgd more water from the Indus source unless a federal quota for drawing more water was allocated, he admitted that the 1,200 cusecs of water, which was allocated to it from the federal quota had already been consumed with the K-III project.
He said, “The government has to take a decision if the quota is to be from the federal quota or Sindh’s quota, but this political decision has to be taken after all and I am sure a decision will be taken soon.”
Asked if the federal government had been approached in this regard, Lt-Gen Ali replied: “I think the Sindh governor is planning to share it with the federal government.”
When a newsman asked whether the Army would help in streamlining the city’s traffic system, which was getting worse with by the day, he said though it was basically the job of the traffic police, which had a sufficient force, the Army might help if asked by the Sindh government.
Attributing the Tameer-i-Karachi programme to traffic jams, he hoped traffic jams problems would be overcome soon, adding that the corps headquarters would soon have a briefing in this regard.
When his attention was drawn towards the rising trend of illegal occupation of footpaths, the corps commander said that since it was not his subject, the Sindh and the city governments should be asked in this regard.
