Sources told Dawn that since the KWSB had already consumed its quota of 1,200 cusecs (600mgd) from the Indus source with the commissioning of the 100mgd K-III project in 2006, the federal government has been approached by the city government to seek the right of drawing additional 1,200 cusecs of water from the Indus for its 600mgd K-IV project, which is to be completed in four phases.

However, the federal government while refusing to allocate a separate quota of water for the city from the Indus had asked the KWSB to seek its required quota of water from the Sindh government’s share of the river.

The sources said that the previous Sindh government had flatly refused to allocate a quota of water required for the K-IV project from its share of water from the Indus on the plea that the provincial government’s quota from the Indus source was already insufficient for meeting its own drinking and agricultural needs, the present government has not yet been approached in this regard owing to the bickering raging between the Sindh and city governments over control of the KWSB and the KBCA..

Elaborating, the sources said that the vital K-IV project would remain in the doldrums until the city got the right to draw the additional 1,200 cusecs of water from the Indus as the city’s quota of 1,200 cusecs of water from the Indus source, which was allocated during the era of the late Gen Zia-ul-Haq, had already been consumed with the commissioning of the 100mgd K-III project.

The sources, however, hoped that the federal government would accept the city government’s request for additional water once the provincial government agreed to allow the KWSB to draw the additional 600mgd of water from the Indus source from its share.

The sources said the provincial government would be convinced that since the project would be completed in four different phases, the KWSB would initially draw only 130mgd of water in 2011 when the first phase of the project might be completed while the remaining quota of water would be drawn from the Indus source in the next nine years as the three other phases, each to take three years, would be completed by 2020. As a result of it, the city’s water supply position would jump from the present 720mgd to 1,260mgd .

Expressing their concern over the inordinate delay being caused in completing the K-IV project study and its PC-I, insiders attributed it to a lack of concentration on the part of the KWSB chief engineer (project) because of his frequent visits abroad during the last two years.

Had the project’s study been completed earlier, it would have been sent to the federal government much earlier for getting it approved by Ecnec, they said.