THESE days we hear, almost on a regular basis, stories of acute water shortage and power outages in the city, especially in the summer, and the infuriating way with which certain groups exploit such situations. But then, as it has often been mentioned, these problems first raised their heads in the 1960s as soon as Karachi’s population began to burgeon. Despite the fact that the two important civic administrative units –– the Karachi Development Authority (KDS) and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) –– tried their best to bring into their control issues that had begun to damage the character of the city, things went awry.

In the last week of April 1968, Karachi suffered a serious shortage of water. On April 29, citizens were told that the KDA was proceeding at a good speed to complete the civil works designed to improve water distribution arrangements in North Karachi, North-Nazimabad and some other adjoining localities flanking the Sindh Industrial Trade Estate (SITE). The Rs11.3 million project was to replace the stop-gap arrangement which had lasted in these areas for well over a decade, badly reflecting on their full-scale development. The project stipulated the building of a reservoir atop a 260-foot hill in Orangi Hills range, a pumping station two miles north of Gujro Nullah in North Nazimabad and administrative and residential blocks. The reservoir would initially have a capacity of 6,000,000 gallons daily that could be subsequently increased. On its completion, even the highest points in North Karachi, North Nazimabad etc were to get water with great flow and pressure. To ensure a smooth and regular water supply to the reservoir, the KDA was supposed to lay an independent pipeline right from the COD Hills to the proposed reservoir.

Earlier, as reported on April 23, another step was taken in the, ostensibly, right direction. The provincial government agreed to finance the preparation for the Revised Master Plan for the Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme. It also sanctioned a little over Rs 3.3 million for the purpose and had authorised the KDA to go ahead with the project. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting to overcome certain difficulties which had cropped up even before the Master Plan Project was actually launched. The difficulties related mainly to the government’s decision to make funds available for the scheme to the KDA as a loan. The KDA’s stand was that unlike the housing schemes which were self-financed, the project had no avenues of recovery of the investment. And since the KDA had no source of revenue of its own, it could not finance such a costly project.

Now, one can imagine from the above-stated reports that basic amenities in the city are, rather have always been, dependent upon the financial condition in which our administrative authorities find themselves.

On the other hand, technology finds its way of entering a system even if the economic situation of that system is not favourable. Here’s an interesting nugget of info on that count. On April 23 it was announced that the Telegraph and Telephone Department was considering the replacement of all telephone receiving sets, commonly known as steno-phone receivers, which had been declared obsolete. The department was engaged in preparing a scheme for replacement of these receivers. Over 5,000 steno-phone receivers were in use in Karachi. They were installed mostly in government officers. The main difficulty with them was that their spare parts, manufactured in Holland, were not readily available in Pakistan.

Ah, thank heavens for our slick smart phones!

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2018