KARACHI, May 23: Water supply to Karachi and Lasbela from Hub dam source will come to a halt once again by mid-June as the water level in the dam’s reservoir is now only 1.5 feet higher than its dead storage level.

The reservoir’s level on Friday stood at 278.5 RL (reservoir level) as against the dead storage level of 276.26 RL, resident engineer of Wapda’s Hub dam project Inamullah Khan told Dawn.

The city is currently getting between 15 and 17 million gallons a day from the Hub source in a cycle of three consecutive days and a two-day gap. sources apprehend that upon closure of supply from the Hub source, not only the localities hooked to this source would face a crisis, but those receiving water from the Indus source would also suffer.

“Already a weekly water-holiday system is in force in the localities hooked to Indus source since October 2002 (when supply from the Hub source was earlier suspended) to divert the conserved quantity to the localities hooked to the Hub source,” the sources pointed out and said that the sprawling townships of Baldia, Orangi, Surjani, North Karachi, Shershah and Site, currently fed through the Indus and Hub sources after every 72 hours, would be requiring more water once the supply from Hub source came to a grinding halt.

It may be recalled that water supply to the city from the Hub source was stopped on Oct 16, 2002 when the dam’s reservoir level dropped to the dead storage level. A brief spell of heavy rains in the dam’s catchment area early in March raised the level from 276 RL to 281.6 RL enabling the authorities to enforce and maintain the current cycle of water supply for the city from March 4 till date.