KARACHI: Blasting, crushing and quarrying activities, which have been going on illegally for many years in Manghopir, not only pose a serious threat to important installations supplying water to the city but can also lead to a major human disaster, it emerged on Saturday.
Situated in the hilly area of Manghopir in Gadap Town, the installations that comprise a filter plant and a reservoir with a capacity of 80MGD and 15MGD, respectively, are managed and operated by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB).
A recent visit to the site showed that extensive quarrying carried out with heavy machinery had not only narrowed down the road leading to the facilities but also eaten away at the base of the hill on which the installations stood.
In addition, large parts of the area owned by the KWSB have been encroached upon and illegal settlements and commercial activities, such as crushing plants, have sprung up on it.
According to sources, the illegal structures have got ‘legal connections of gas and electricity’ while they acquire water by tampering with KWSB lines passing nearby.
“The area has a violent history and it has often been a scene of operations by law enforcement agencies. Though the law and order situation has improved, criminal elements residing in this part of the city are a constant danger to the staff working at the installations,” said a KWSB official on condition of anonymity.
Unabated excavation of hills, he said, had made the entire KWSB infrastructure vulnerable to damage and Rangers’ presence was needed to protect the installations.
According to him, the situation can cause a landslide as well and lead to a major disaster on account of chlorine leakage. The chemical was transported to and stored at the facility for use as a disinfection agent, he added.
The spread of the toxic chemical in environment could take a big human toll. “Chlorine is heavier than air so it will settle down in low-lying areas, creating a big challenge to tackle the disaster. Some of our staff members got hurt, one of them hospitalised, following exposure to dangerous concentrations of chlorine during work at the plant three years ago,” said another official.
Raising concern over the possibility of damage to installations, KWSB officials said that water from the Manghopir facilities was supplied to parts of central district and the entire west district and, in case of damage caused by a terrorist attack, landslide or in case the installations caved in, these areas would go completely dry.
“The entire area needs to be secured as any damage to the reservoir will not get repaired for months. There is also a need to look into the environmental damage the unregulated quarrying is causing to the area’s biodiversity,” said an official.
On the features of the filter plant and the reservoir, the staff deputed at the site said the reservoir was built in 1980s with the pumping house and the Hub dam while the filter plant was built with the support of JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency) at a cost of Rs532 million in 2005.
The plant consists of filter beds, tanks, chemical and administration blocks and wash water recovery system.
“As we are facing drought conditions and supply from the Hub dam has stopped completely, we are supplying 85MGD from this facility to the city through the Indus source. In normal days, however, supplies reach up to 100MGD,” said Manzoor Yameen, an official at the filter plant.
Strategic assets
In a letter to the home secretary in February this year, the KWSB highlighted its concerns regarding threats to its installations in Manghopir.
“The continued activity has narrowed the right of way and congested the traffic flow on the road, which is the only passage for transportation of highly flammable petroleum containers and chlorine cylinders to these installations.
“On this location, the explosive activities of criminal elements, especially the high intense blasting and heavy mechanical drilling, can cause a grave human tragedy and break down the system, as the foundation of KWSB installations have already been shaken and weakened, resultantly.
“It is, therefore, requested that activities of criminal elements for grabbing land and sand-lifting around the Manghopir filter plant and reservoir may urgently be stopped and the illegal structures be dismantled,” says the letter.
KWSB managing director Misbahuddin Farid admitted that the vital water assets were under a serious threat and said that he had been pointing out the dangers to the government and law enforcement agencies for many years.
“The total KWSB land area in this particular place (Deh Halkani) is 668 acres, 30 per cent of which has been occupied by the land mafia. The case had been in court for a long period and finally it was decided that all encroachments would be removed,” he said.
He said the process of removing encroachments could not be initiated following transfer of the district commissioner (west) to Malir three months ago.
On chlorine disaster risk, he said his correspondence with the government high-ups included that threat.
Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2016
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