KARACHI: KWSB to outsource operations, upkeep of installations
By Azizullah Sharif
KARACHI, May 24: The financially-starved KWSB under its contract management plan has, in principle, decided to outsource the operations and maintenance of its major installations as all of them are functioning much below their optimum capacity.
These installations include all its three sewage treatment plants (STPs), six filter plants and four main pumping stations, the sources said. They added that the purpose of outsourcing operations and maintenance of these installations is to get their capacity enhanced, as well as to get the assets renewed.
The sources said that the maximum designed capacity of STP-I, which was installed in 1959 at Site, is 51 million gallons per day (mgd). But it is hardly treating 25mgd of sewage.
STP-II (Mehmoodabad), also built in 1959 with a designed capacity of 46mgd, is treating only 20mgd, while STP-III, set up in 1998 at Mauripur, is treating 35mgd of sewage against its designed capacity of 54mgd.
It means all three STPs are treating only 80 of the total 400mgd of sewage produced in the city, while the remaining 320mgd untreated sewage is disposed of into the sea, posing a serious threat to marine life and disturbing the marine eco-system, besides affecting vital port installations.
Citing the reasons for their low output, the sources said these include the lack of a conveyance system for carrying sewage to the STPs and low efficiency of the sewage treatment plant equipment. The KWSB has, however, proposed the rehabilitation of all three STPs for optimising their efficiency at an estimated cost of Rs1 billion.
However, with a view to recycle wastewater at all the treatment plants, it has also been proposed to refine the treated sewage through reverse osmosis or some other process so that this water could be utilised for industrial and horticultural purposes in the city, the sources said.
The financing of the project could be arranged on a BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis, with a concession period of 20 years. The would-be operator of the wastewater recycling project will have two options: either sell the treated water to buyers directly or to the city government/KWSB.
The main pumping stations whose operation and maintenance is proposed to be outsourced are: Dhabeji, Pipri, NEK (North-East Karachi) and Hub, while the filter plants whose operations and maintenance are likely to be outsourced exist at both the old and new pump houses of Gharo, Pipri (old), NEK (old) and two filter plants set up at COD Hills.Moreover, the KWSB, under its joint venture programme with foreign firms, has also initiated a proposal for setting up a pipe factory to meet the city’s requirements for the next 50 years.
