KARACHI, Nov 1: Amid criticism from both the treasury and opposition benches, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board chief requested the City Council members and town nazims on Thursday to help the KWSB in the recovery of its dues and elimination of illegal water connections.
Ghulam Arif, the KWSB managing director, attended the city council session presided over by its convener and city naib nazim Nasreen Jalil. He also briefed the members on the problems and performance of his department.
Opposition members also criticised the performance of the fire brigade department and questioned the absence of officials of the bomb disposal squad.
They strongly criticised the performance of the water utility, and some of them alleged that KWSB officials were involved in illegal sale of water. They also expressed reservation over the ongoing mega-projects relating to water and sewerage.
Some treasury members belonging to the Haq Parast panel also expressed their reservation over the distribution of water from the K-III. They highlighted sewerage and infrastructure problems being faced by people in their towns. Council member Dilawar Shah informed the KWSB managing director that two of his subordinates were involved in selling Keamari Town’s water to private ships and companies. Hearing it, the MD announced that he would initiate an inquiry against the two officials and asked Mr Shah to cooperate with him during the investigation in the matter.
Council members sought from the MD the details of the ongoing projects, and highlighted water and sewerage problems in Lyari, Orangi, Site, Baldia and Saddar towns. The MD invited them to his office for case to case information. Mr Arif told the house that additional water would be given to Clifton, Orangi, Baldia and Lyari towns through the K-III project by the end of this month.
He said people living in Lyari and Keamari towns did not lodge proper complaints and only made hue and cry over water shortages.
He went on to say that some 15,000 complaints had been received at the centralised complaint centre. Of them, 13,000 had been addressed. “Only 302 complaints were from Keamari and Lyari towns and 255 of the total complaints have been addressed.”
The MD expressed his inability to supply water through tankers due to the non-availability of tankers.
He said that some 300 pumping stations were affected whenever power breakdowns occurred and his department was short of funds to install generators on each pumping station.
Ghulam Arif said all the UCs would be given their due share in the collection of water charges. He asked the union councils to purchase and install generators with their own funds to help the utility in solving the water and sanitation problems created by power breakdowns. He said all the UCs were being given 25 per cent of the KWSB’s revenue generated through collection of water bills in their respective jurisdiction and the UCs could afford to install generators.
He requested the town and UC nazims to help the water board in the recovery of water bills and removal of unauthorised water connections. He also urged the members to conceive water and sewerage-related projects in a transparent manner.
Mr Arif informed the house that the water utility would soon install metres in each town to assess the actual water supply. He said 640mgd water was being supplied to Karachi, which was sufficient for the city’s needs.
He said the city government was spending Rs17.5 billion on water and sewerage projects.
He denied water and sewerage board’s involvement in digging under flyovers as was shown in newspapers and assured the council that his department would not do such dangerous acts.
Sunday fires
Both treasury and opposition members of the city council expressed serious concern over the rising incidents of fire in the city and asked the fire brigade department to adopt preventive measures.
Opposition member Zarina Qadir Baloch asked that why all major fire incidents occurred on Sundays. She was referring to a recent fire incident in the Radio Pakistan building and two earlier incidents in which fires erupted in the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation building. She said this aspect must be investigated.
Treasury member Sarwat Arif said that the city government had outdated equipment for fire fighting. Another treasury member, Shabana Shahbaz, urged the city government to investigate the Radio Pakistan fire and take measures to prevent occurrence of such incidents in future.
A member from Gadap Town said that there was no fire station in his town and there was a dire need to establish the facility to counter possible fire incidents.
Opposition members also expressed concern over the rumours regarding plans to sell the Radio Pakistan building after the fire incident.
Another opposition member, Imran Baghpati, said the failure of the Karachi Building Control Authority in effectively implementing the building laws was the main reason behind such incidents. He said many influentials would be unmasked if the KBCA tried to implement its bylaws.
