ISLAMABAD: The Sindh government has so far contributed no financing to the Rs25.55 billion Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme K-IV against its committed share of Rs12.755bn.

Under an agreement reached between the centre and Sindh and approved by the National Economic Council (NEC) in June last year, the two governments are required to meet financial cost of the project on an equal basis — Rs12.755bn each.

A quarterly report of the Planning Commission submitted to the prime minister and all members of the NEC showed the centre had transferred Rs2.2bn (about 17pc of its total commitment) to the Sindh government before end-June as its share for the financial year 2014-15.

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But the Sindh government did not disburse its share for the project. Unfortunately, it could not even utilise the funds released by the federal government. As a consequence, the project could achieve physical progress of only one per cent by end-Sept 2015.

According to an official, the centre also allocated another Rs500 million for the project to be spent during the fiscal year 2015-16. Since the provincial government has neither utilised the federal funds nor ensured matching disbursement or mobilised the project, no funds from the Public Sector Development Programme have been disbursed so far this year.

The federal disbursements were contingent upon matching financing by the Sindh government under the 2014 understanding.

In fact, the official said, no PSDP funding for major federal-supported projects in Sindh like K-III, K-IV and Green Line Metro project had been released this year.

The K-IV project is aimed at providing 650 million gallons per day (MGD) of water to meet the demand of 18.529 million population of Karachi. The scheme has been divided into three stages — 260 MGD each in the first and second phases and 130 MGD in the third phase.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015