KARACHI: Many areas in the city are likely to face an acute water shortage on Monday (today) due to a power breakdown at one of the key pumping stations of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) that has caused a shortfall of 100 million gallons of water per day (MGD).

In a statement, a KWSC spokesperson said that a major power breakdown hit the Dhabeji Pumping Station at 6:35am. “Due to the sudden power suspension, 72-inch line No 5 has been affected, while four pumps shut down,” he said.

“According to initial estimates, the city could face a shortage of 100 MGD due to the pumps’ shutdown and the line being impacted,” he said.

While the KWSC did not mention the areas to be affected due to the shortage, previous power breakdowns at the facility had impacted supply to areas in the East and Central districts.

The statement said the repair work of the affected line had been initiated and the KWSC’s technical teams were “utilising all resources in making every effort to restore the water supply from the affected line”.

According to the statement, the restoration work is expected to be completed by Monday (today), after which the entire system of the Dhabeji station will be operational again as usual.

The KWSC claimed that electricity at the Dhabeji station had remained suspended for many hours on Nov 5, Nov 11 and Nov 13 due to a “cable fault of K-Electric”.

However, the KE had blamed “leakages” in the KWSC’s water pipelines for damaging the underground electricity cables.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2025