KARACHI, Jan 19: The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s sewers serve only 20 per cent of the city and that these being deep and dependent upon pumping could not be maintained and have thus collapsed.

This was stated by the director of the Orangi Pilot Project , Parveen Rehman, on Saturday.

She said that in the remaining 80 per cent of Karachi, the sewerage system had been laid by the KDA, KMC, SKKA, cantonment boards, housing societies, builders and kutchi abadis’ residents.

All these sewers emptied into drains which being open and filled with garbage and silt cause frequent overflows.

Ms Rehman said that only 20 per cent of Karachi’s sewage was treated and the rest went untreated into the sea.

She said the solution to the problem lay in what was termed the ‘acceptance of the natural nullahs and drains as the main disposals for sewage’.

Yet another solution was the building of sewage treatment plants at the locations where the nullahs/drains joined the sea.

Ms Rehman said the task could be performed through the management of local resources rather than the foreign loans.

She also said that as per the KMC’s last budget Rs300 million was allocated for sewerage and if this amount was used annually for nullah development, the work could be completed in about six years.—APP