KARACHI: KWSB earns little from additional water supply
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Nov 19: The KWSB’s inability to show any increase in its revenue under the head of water charges in the last two years despite the fact that the city’s water supply during the period had jumped by 200 million gallons of water per day (mgd) has justified the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) team’s findings that the ratio of the city’s non-revenue water had soared to 45 per cent.
With the commissioning of the K-III project and the restoration of full supply from the Hub Dam, the city’s water supply went up by 200mgd during the last two years. But, the KWSB income during the last two financial years remained static.
According to some well-placed officials of the utility, the poor recoveries made by the KWSB revenue department had also perturbed its chairman City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal who sought complete details of the beneficiaries of the additional water supply and expected revenue generated through its sale.
The sources quoted nazim as saying that it was beyond his comprehension where the money that would have been accrued through the sale had gone. He was much worried about the fact that the water board’s income under the head of water charges had not shown increase in proportionate to the rise in supply of water, they said.
Insiders attribute the causes of unsatisfactory recoveries to illegal water connections of private hydrants, industries and others with the connivance of water board officials, besides wastage of huge quantity of water through leaking pipelines and increasing incidence of water theft.
Referring to the JICA’s report whereby the ratio of non-revenue water in the city’s total water supply from both the sources — Indus River and Hub Dam — has been mentioned as 45 per cent, the officials said the JICA team had added 35 per cent technical water losses and 10 per cent non-technical water losses while calculating the overall losses.
Having a total bulk water supply capacity of 720mgd, 645mgd from the Indus and 75mgd from the Hub Dam, the ratio of non-revenue water had gone as high as 45 per cent which meant that the current billed water supply for both domestic and non-domestic purposes came to 351mgd, the sources added.
