KARACHI, July 30: In a belated move, the Water and Power Development Authority has decided to repair the rusting pillars of the aqueducts of the 5.2-mile-long Hub canal for releasing more water to Karachi and Lasbella from the Hub dam.
Water supply to the city and Lasbella from the Hub source will remain suspended for three weeks to carry out repair of the pillars, as well as for desilting of the canal.
However, a controversy has emerged over the timing of carrying out such works between the Wapda and the city government’s water and sanitation department.
Senior officials of the water utility are of the view that Wapda should undertake such works once the current spell of rains is over, as repairs might take even four to five weeks, which means that supply to the city from the Hub source will remain suspended for a long period.
Wapda officials told Dawn that they were willing to repair the rusting pillars and carry out the canal’s desilting as soon as possible so that more water could be released to Karachi and Lasbella.
“The reservoir has already attained its full supply level and we can now release a maximum of 370 cusecs (200 mgd) of water to its canal for both Karachi and Lasbella,” said an official of Wapda.
At present, Karachi is being supplied between 25 and 30 mgd from the source Hub source.
However, a major decision on drawing more water from the Hub source, timings of undertaking repair of the rusted pillars of the aqueducts and canal’s desilting is likely to be taken at a meeting on July 12 at the Sindh Secretariat.
The meeting, presided over by Sindh’s additional chief secretary, will be attended by Balochistan’s irrigation secretary and senior officials of W&S department and Wapda.
The issue of repair of Hub canal’s aqueduct pillars has been lingering on since early April and the Wapda officials had then warned that the release of water beyond 30 mgd to Karachi might result in the collapse of the pillars of the aqueducts.
Sources said Wapda had been delaying the repair of pillars on the plea that since both the beneficiaries of the dam water (Balochistan and Sindh governments) had not being paying the dam’s capital cost, as well as maintenance and operation costs of the canal, Wapda was not in a position to undertake such works.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Sindh minister for planning and development Shoaib Bukhari had written a letter to the Sindh governor and the chief minister in May, requesting them to intervene into the matter or else the city’s former district West which solely depend on Hub water, will continue to suffer from water crisis even after the dam is filled to its capacity in the wake of monsoon rains.
Shortly afterwards, the Wapda officials agreed to undertake the repair of ducts’ pillars at their own expenses.
Water to the city and Lasbella from the Hub source is first released to the main Hub canal and from there it passes through the 14-mile-long Karachi Supply Canal and 21-mile-long Lasbella branch canal before reaching Karachi and Lasbella.
The Hub main canal is maintained by Wapda, Karachi Supply canal by the city government’s water and sanitation department and Lasbella Branch Canal by the Balochistan government.
The engineers concerned are of the view that the W&S department should also, simultaneously, repair cracks which had developed at a number of places in the 14-mile long Karachi Supply Canal, otherwise a huge quantity of water will go to waste once more water is released to the canal from the Hub source.
The canal, which is in the control of the W&S department, is in such a precarious condition that about 10 mgd water goes to waste.
In support of their contention, they said at present Wapda officials claim that they have been releasing 30 mgd to Karachi after a gap of every 48 hours, but the W&S department officials assert they are getting about 20 mgd at its Hub pumping station.
SUFFICIENT WATER: Asked how much water Karachi can now draw from the Hub source, the sources in the W&S department said since the reservoir had filled to its maximum capacity, the city could continue to draw 100 mgd from it for the next three years and at the rate of 50 mgd for six long years.
According to the water utility’s acting managing director, Suleman Chandio, in, fact, the Almighty Allah has rescued Karachiites from the impending water crisis by replenishing the dried up Hub reservoir and thus providing an ample quantity of water in the dam’s reservoir which would be enough till the completion of K-3 Project, whereby the city will get an additional 100 mgd by December 2005.”
The weekly water-holiday system, which is in vogue in the localities getting their supply from the Indus source, will also be done away with after the city starts getting 50 mgd and more from the Hub source, he added.
The W&S department had introduced weekly water-holiday system in October last for localities getting supply from Indus source for diverting the same to the localities getting water from the Hub source.
WAPDA CHIEF: Wapda chairman Lt-Gen Zulfiqar Ali Khan on Wednesday visited the Hub dam to review the situation at the reservoir.
Water from the Hub dam’s 30 square-mile-long reservoir continued to overflow from its spillway on Wednesday towards Arabian Sea as water level in the reservoir on Wednesday night stood at 341 feet.
Briefing the Wapda chief officials manning the dam’s operation, said water from the dam’s spillway started overflowing at 11.30 pm on Tuesday after the reservoir’s level rose to 242.2 feet as against its full supply level of 339 feet. The Wapda chief, who was accompanied by the Wapda’s chief engineer (Water) Mushtaq Sangi and GM (South), Brig M Iqbal, was informed that water had last overflowed in 1995. Dam project’s resident engineer, Inamullah Khan, told Dawn that the first wave of water overflowed from the spillway so steadily on Tuesday night that the water rushing towards the Arabian sea caused no loss to villagers.