KARACHI, July 29: The massive power breakdown that plunged the city into darkness on Monday night also wreaked havoc on the city’s major water pumping stations, forcing the teeming millions to suffer a shortage of around 160 million gallons of water.
Pumping of water to the city from all the major pumping stations — Dhabeji, Pipri, Gharo, North-East Karachi (NEK) — came to an abrupt
halt at about 11.15pm on Monday in the wake of power failures and water supply to the city on an average remained suspended for seven to 10 hours, the KWSB chief engineer (Electrical and Mehanical) Gulzar Memon told Dawn on Tuesday.
About the impact of the shortage, sources in the KWSB said that though the entire city would face acute water shortage for the next two days. Most localities would either go dry or receive scant supply on Wednesday and Thursday, they said.
The city had already suffered a shortfall of around 160mgd
till 8pm on Tuesday but the shortfall would further go up as the power outages once again hit Hub, Dhabeji and Gharo pumping stations after 7.10pm.
The city’s water distribution system was badly affected after 11.15pm on Monday as there was no electricity at the water board’s pump houses, including Low Supply Reservoir (LSR), 9th-Mile, NIPA, Shah Faisal, Malir, Landhi and Korangi.
Giving details of the power breakdowns occurring at the KWSB major pumping stations, he said that there was no electricity at Dhabeji and Gharo pumping stations for around 10 hours, at NEK pumping station for seven-and-a-half hours, 9th Mile pump house for six hours and Shah Faisal, Malir, Landhi pumping stations for around seven to eight hours.
The power supply at Dhabeji and Hub pumping stations, through which the city gets four and four-and-half million gallons of water per hour, respectively, went off again at 7.30pm and 7.10pm on Tuesday.
Sewage overflow
For more than eight hours there was no electricity at all the major sewage pumping stations and treatment plants of the KWSB, which badly affected the pumping and treatment of sewage.
Though the KWSB has managed to control overflows at all its major sewage pumping stations by restoring electricity through generators, one cannot rule out the possibility of overflowing gutters in Clifton and Saddar areas as the
Clifton pumping station is still without a generator.
KWSB projects
City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal on Tuesday exhorted KWSB officials to ensure that all the ongoing water and sewerage development projects were completed within their stipulated period.
Presiding over a meeting of the KWSB officers, the nazim who is also its chairman, directed the officials to ensure equitable distribution of water in every nook and corner of the city, including Lyari.
Underscoring the need for increasing the water board’s revenue, he asked the officials concerned to raise the net of the utility’s consumers, besides launching a campaign for recovering water dues from its consumers in cooperation with the administrations of towns and union councils.
He said that of the total recoveries to be made under the head of water and sewerage dues, five per cent would be given to the town municipal administration, 20 per cent to union council and 75 percent would be retained by the KWSB.
He also directed KWSB Managing Director Sulaiman Chandio to help expedite the work aimed at installing 100-megawatt electricity plant at the Dhabeji pumping station.