KARACHI, March 19: A serious water crisis hit the city on Tuesday as pumping of water from the Dhabeji Phase-II pumping station came to an abrupt halt early Tuesday morning.
The pumping of water to the city from four, out of 14 pumps of Dhabeji’s pumping station, stopped on Tuesday morning following a multiple fault which developed in the Dhabeji’s 11-KV high tension cable and it could not be restored till our going to the press.
The city had already been facing water crisis and there would be a shortfall of over 76 mgd by Tuesday night which may further go up by 100 mgd till 10 am on Wednesday, sources said.
Although KESC has started removing the faulty cables on a war- footing basis, sources said the repair work is expected to be completed by 10.30am on Wednesday which means that the gap between the city’s supply and demand will continue to soar at the rate of four mgd per hour.
The KWSB officials apprehend that if the KESC failed to rectify the fault by 10.30 am on Wednesday, the city will continue to remain in the grip of an acute water shortage till Friday or Saturday.
Meanwhile, an acute water shortage continues to persist in several parts of the city for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday.
The hard-hit areas include Buffer zone’s sectors 15-A/1, 15- B, 16-A, North Karachi’s sectors 5-C/3, tail-end area of Sector 5-D, Old Golimar, Clifton’s Block 2 and Old city areas, including Kharadar and Lyari.
The area people urged the City Nazim to direct the concerned officials to restore normal supply of water without any further delay as they cannot afford to buy private tankers.
Complaints of contaminated water supply have also been received from various city areas, including Liaquatabad’s C-One Area, Bhangoria Goth and Azizabad No 2.
Residents said although they were being supplied stinking water for the last four or five days, the concerned officials have not yet removed the fault.
ANOTHER BREAKDOWN: At a time when the city had already suffered a shortfall of over 76 mgd from the Dhabeji pumping station’s phase-II, another power breakdown occurred at the KWSB’s North-East Karachi’s both old and new pumping stations at 8.50 pm on Tuesday, depriving the city of another five mgd of water. The KWSB officials said power supply to the NEK’s both old and new pumphouses was suspended at 8.50 pm on Tuesday owing to under frequency breakdown that had occurred in the extra high tension feeder and the electricity to both the pump house was restored at 9.20 pm the same day.