KARACHI: One of the 72-inch-dia pipelines bringing water to the city burst early on Tuesday morning, causing a shortage of around 150 million gallons of water to the metropolis, it is learnt.

A statement issued by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board says that the repair work on the burst pipeline had immediately been started but it was expected to take around 30 hours and the city was expected to resume receiving its normal supply of over 500mgd of water from Thursday. It has urged the people to conserve water and use it carefully till normal supply resumed.

Responding to Dawn queries, KWSB spokesperson Rizwan Haider said that electricity supply to the water board’s pumping station at Dhabeji was disrupted owing to which back pressure mounted in the 72-inch pipeline, which could not sustain it and burst. He said that immediately the valves and water gates were shut but in the meantime around 28 million gallons of water had come out of the burst pipeline and had inundated around a two-square-kilometre area in the vicinity.

He said that heavy machinery was immediately dispatched to the site and repair work was started, but it would take around 30 hours to repair the damaged pipe and the city would continue to receive at least 150mgd of water less than its normal supply of over 500mgd. He said the repair works would continue round the clock without any break till the water supply resumed.

He said that despite repeated requests to the electricity company’s power supply did not remain normal and voltage drops were a common phenomenon, which resulted in frequent breakdowns of the water board’s pumps and motors, leading to water shortages in the city. The water board also has to spend a huge amount on the repair and replacement of its heavy machinery and equipment at the water board’s Dhabeji, Pipri and North East Karachi installations, he said.

The city has already been suffering from an acute shortage of water. Protest demonstrations against water scarcity are almost a daily phenomenon on main roads.

The shortage would just add to the water woes of Karachiites.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2017