KARACHI: Most parts of the city had to go without water for several hours on Thursday when the Dhabeji pumping station under the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) faced a sudden shutdown.

While the KWSB blamed the shutdown on K-Electric for suspending power supply to the pumping station, the power utility held the water board responsible for what it described as ‘its internal fault’.

According to the KWSB, there was an hour-long power failure from 4pm to 4.55pm at the Dhabeji pumping station which suspended water supplies to most parts of the city.

“Although electricity supply resumed in an hour, it would take hours to resume water supply to the city,” said KWSB spokesperson Rizwan Hyder, adding that 16 pumps out of 22 stopped functioning when electricity went off.

According to him, power failures have occurred many times this year at the Dhabeji pumping station, which also faces persistent power fluctuation in its supplies.

“Three of our pumps have so far broken down due to high fluctuation. One has been replaced whereas the other had to be repaired,” he said.

The K-Electric, he said, had been reminded of these problems many times. “Earlier, we were told that old cables were causing problem so the KWSB got them replaced six months ago with the help of K-Electric. But fluctuation is still there, which is a serious threat to the pumping station.”

He warned that if electricity problems continued at Dhabeji, water situation could become worse in the city, already being supplied half (550MGD) of its total demand (1,200MGD).

The K-Electric staff stationed at Dhabeji, he said, was of no help as they had no control over fluctuated supplies from the source.

“The Hub Dam is also going dry since there have been no rains. The Water and Power Development Authority (the dam regulator) has recently reduced supplies from the dam to the city, first to 40MGD and then increased it to 60MGD when the media raised the issue,” he explained.

K-Electric, however, refuted KWSB’s stance over the Dhabeji pumping station shutdown and stated that there was no disruption in power supply to the facility.

“Power supply to the city, including the Dhabeji pumping station, is as per routine. K-Electric provides all possible support to the KWSB and its strategic installations are exempted from load-shedding,” said a statement from the power utility.

“We have surveyed our supply at Dhabeji recently and there is no issue in the supply. Pump malfunctions and other internal faults are not part of K-Electric’s purview.

“KE has also invested significantly to provide primary as well as backup feeder facility at the Dhabeji pumping station, where a technical team remains on standby to give priority to any issues at the KWSB facility,” added the statement.

It also urged the KWSB management to invest in system upgrade.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2017