KARACHI, March 26 The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board is being cheated by a number of its major bulk consumers, which consume huge quantities of water but get away with nominal payments for the supplies, a well-placed source in the water utility told Dawn.

Citing examples of a number of those bulk consumers who consumed huge quantities of water but paid meagre amounts as water charges, the sources said the monthly water bill of the Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), which has an 18-inch diameter connection and where more that 200 industries are operational, ranged from Rs1.6 to Rs1.8 million. In contrast, the average monthly water bill of a single company, Engro Asahi, also having a water connection of 18-inch diameter and situated in Port Qasim Authority's area, was Rs7 million to Rs8 million.

Similarly, the monthly water bill of another bulk consumer, Indus Refinery, located near Ghaggar Phatak, which too has an 18-inch diameter connection, ranges from Rs7 million to Rs8 million, the source pointed out, adding that it was beyond comprehension how the EPZA, which has 200 industries on its premises, could be consuming water worth only Rs1.6 million and Rs1.8 million a month.

The sources suspected that some of the 200 industries set up in the zone might have taken illegal connections from the utility's conduit, getting water round the clock to meet their water needs.

Referring to another major bulk consumer, the Karachi Port Trust, about which KWSB officials suspected was paying much less as water charges against the consumption of the liquid, the sources said that though the KPT had 13 water connections, nine of them were shown as disconnected and, as such, its monthly water bill from the remaining four water connections of 12 inches, nine inches and two of six inches each, stood between Rs400,000 and Rs500,000 only.

“Isn't it shocking that a large organisation like the KPT, which has a huge complex of offices, 60 berths, many large warehouses and some commercial concerns on its land has been consuming water amounting to mere Rs400,000 and Rs500,000 per month?” said a senior official of the KWSB.

In support of his contention that the EPZA and the KPT consumed huge quantities of water as against the peanuts they paid to the KWSB, the sources wondered how it was possible that the monthly water bills of the EPZA, having a water connection of 18-inch diameter, and the KPT with four water connections (two of six inches diameter each, one of nine inches and one of 12 inches) could on an average be from Rs1.6 million to Rs1.8 million and from Rs400,000 to Rs500,000 when the monthly water charges bill of another bulk consumer (Pakland Cement Factory), which has got a water connection of only three inches diameter, came to around Rs1.1 million.

Terming the practice of using huge quantities of water by some major bulk consumers and paying meagre amounts as water charges “a big racket”, officials well-versed with the water distribution system of the city did not rule out the possibility of KWSB officials' involvement in it, saying that unless a high-level inquiry was ordered to expose such elements, the KWSB's financial position would continue to deteriorate.