• LG minister says cost of long-delayed project has increased from Rs25bn to Rs247bn
• Says city’s four garbage transfer stations to be functional next year

KARACHI: People of the city may have to wait for at least three more years to get smooth supply of potable water as the Sindh Assembly was on Monday informed that the much-delayed Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme, better known as K-IV, would be completed by April 2027.

Furnishing statement and replies to lawmakers’ written and verbal queries during Question Hour and responding to the call attention notices, Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said that everyone knew what happened in the past regarding this project.

“The initial cost of the project was Rs 25 billion which now has escalated to Rs243 billion,” he added.

Mr Ghani said that the general public did not know the issues in the project as certain things such as water supply and power supply were not kept in consideration when it was conceived.

He said that work had been in progress simultaneously on four different components of the K-IV bulk project as this scheme was likely to be commissioned by April 2027.

In reply to a call attention notice, Mr Ghani said: “An amount of Rs14 billion will be required to complete the S-III sewage treatment project and the provincial government has allocated Rs3 billion for the project in the current year,” he added

He said that at present the project had been merely treating 35 MGD of wastewater before its disposal into the sea instead of its total 180 MGD treatment capacity.

He said that work had been started to expand the capacity of the existing Hub canal from 70 MGD to 100 MGD to the city. He added that another project had been launched to build a new canal to bring an additional 100 MGD of water from Hub Dam to the city.

The local government minister also informed the house that work had been in progress to build four out of five garbage transfer stations (GTS) the SSWMB had to construct in the city on a scientific basis to fully take care of the environmental conditions of the surrounding areas.

“The work on the Sohrab Goth GTS is yet to commence due to a land-related issue,” he said and added that work on the four GTS to be completed by August 2025.

In reply to another question, he said that no union committee (UC) or town municipal corporation (TMC) in the city was authorised to allow door-to-door collection of waste by any private service provider in their jurisdiction.

He said that permissions given to private individuals to collect garbage by any UC or TMC was illegal. He said that the private service providers involved in the lifting of garbage in Karachi had turned into a mafia posing serious civic problem in the city.

The minister said that these private persons sorted out the municipal waste after its collection to retrieve precious items, while the rest of the trash was carelessly disposed of in the storm water drains in the city.

He said that he had put forth the suggestion that a system should be developed for door-to-door waste collection in the city with the involvement of the relevant UC.

He said launching such a garbage disposal system would also generate financial resources for the UCs.

The LG minister informed the house that garbage disposal had improved in the city since the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) had started functioning. “However, more has to be done on this front,” he admitted.

Replying to another question, he said that numerous development schemes having billions of rupees cost to build the sewerage system had been completed in district Central in the past four years.

He conceded that problems related to malfunctioning of the sewerage system had emerged on inner city streets following monsoon rains not just in district Central but in the entire city.

The LG minister said that in the first phase the damaged main roads in Karachi were being repaired as reviving the sewerage system beneath them would help restore the inner streets in the city.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2024