KARACHI, Nov 12: The Governor of Sindh, Mohammedmian Soomro, has directed the concerned officials to chalk out a comprehensive water policy for Karachi. He was presiding over a high level meeting on the issue here on Tuesday.
The governor stressed that the water policy should envisage all allied factors including the alternative sources of supply. He said the work on finding out such alternative sources should be carried out on emergency basis.
He suggested that till the completion of arrangements, distribution of water in all the parts of the city on equitable basis be ensured so as to minimize inconvenience to the people.
Mr Soomro asked the concerned authorities to plug the leakages in conduits and water theft and said the water so saved should be supplied to the deficit areas.
He directed the officials to ensure double line system for multi-storey buildings in future. This, he said, would enable the consumers to use potable water for drinking and cooking purposes and recycled water for other purposes.
A presentation on water supply system in Karachi was given by the Managing Director of KWSB, Brig Javed Ashraf Khan, at the meeting.
He referred to the widening gap in supply and demand because of population explosion and argued that the existing potential sources — Hub and Indus — had limitations in meeting the future water demand for the city.
He told the meeting that the bulk water being drawn presently was 490mgd while a balance of 148.61mgd was yet to be drawn from the total allocation of 1,200 cusecs. By the year 2005, he added, this allocation would fully be consumed and then another allocation of 1,200 cusecs would be required to meet the demand up to the year 2025.
Brig Javed Ashraf said that the water problem of Karachi should not be considered as a city problem. “Its scope and extent are more akin to the problem of a country,” he said adding, “we should not underscore its gravity.”
Therefore, the K-3 fast track implementation is critical to solve short term problem of Karachi (up to 2006), he explained. He asserted that the Master Plan for the year 2002-2025 must be formulated now and at the same time the restructuring of water board needed immediate attention.
Brig Ashraf said that the Hub source had depleted completely and it had aggravated the water shortage. The other factors contributing to the shortage are the 30-year-old leakages, seepages and maintenance problems, unrehabilitated system, illegal hydrants raised under local pressure groups, etc.
As an alternative, he suggested emergency pumping arrangements at Hub in conjunction with the WAPDA and provincial government. He listed diversion of Indus source water to Hub-reach areas as KWSB’s strategy and said that these were now being supplied 70mgd as against the allocation of 55mgd. He said that there had been no reduction in supplies to Lyari, Liaquatabad, Malir, Landhi and Korangi areas.
Brig Ashraf said that a full load of water supply was being run through augmentation of tanker system under the supervision of Pakistan Rangers to meet the shortfall in the affected areas.—APP