KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday
expressed annoyance over the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board for
“misguiding” successive governments about the actual requirement of
water in the metropolis and said that the problem lay with the
decades-old distribution network which had completed its age and needed
replacement.
Chairing a follow-up meeting in compliance
with the Supreme Court’s directives regarding provision of safe drinking
water to every citizen, the CM said that Karachi’s population was 16
million as per the provisional results of the population census and in
view of this the water requirement of the metropolis should not exceed
800 million gallons daily.
Sources said the CM’s strong
response came when KWSB Managing Director Hashim Raza Zaidi tried to
explain the water utility’s efforts to bridge the demand and supply gap
in the city.
Asks local govt minister to prepare a plan to replace decades-old pipelines
CM Shah told the meeting that the KWSB itself said that per
person water requirement was 50 gallons daily by their estimate and
keeping in mind the census results, the water requirement for 16m people
stood at 800 MGD.
He said currently the KWSB was getting
650 MGD, which by the end of 2018 would increase by 260 MGD from K-IV
and 65 MGD from another small scheme. “Thus 975 MGD water would be
available in the city which would be enough for another three to four
years,” he pointed out.
He said the bureaucracy of KWSB
and the Sindh local government department had been misguiding
politicians for the past many years by presenting figures based on
miscalculations of water requirement.
“I am a
professional engineer, you cannot misguide me,” he snubbed the KWSB
officials. “The actual problem is rusted, defective, old and
contaminated distribution network.” He directed Local Government
Minister Jam Khan Shoro to prepare a plan to replace the old water
supply lines in phases.
He said the government would
provide funds regardless of the project’s cost as pipelines were not
only contaminating water but also wasting it through seepage.
New pipelines to cost Rs200bn
The
LG minister said that there was 1,200-km-long water supply network in
the city and its replacement would cost around Rs200 billion.
The
chief minister said: “I would suggest you collect area-wise data of the
water supply lines laid there and then start replacing the oldest one
in the first phase,” he said.
He added there were old
areas where water distribution pipelines were laid about 60 to 70 years
ago and some were said to be around 100 years old.
The meeting was told that the municipal, hospital and industrial waste water was being released into Lyari and Malir rivers.
The CM was told that there was a plan to install a 94 MGD waste water treatment plant.
KWSB asked to install own power plant
The
LG minister informed the CM about the Hyderabad Electric Supply
Company’s demand from the KWSB for Rs 6bn so that it could supply 50
megawatts to the K-IV pumping stations at the Keenjhar Lake.
Mr
Shah asked the KWSB as to why it was not going to install its own
LNG-based or wind power plant of 50MW instead of paying a hefty sum of
Rs6bn.
“Funds are available for K-IV. I would suggest
you install your personal power plant of 50MW and pump Rs2bn equity, and
a private party and the government would become their partners for
construction of power plant and transmission line for water board,” he
said.
The chief minister asked Energy Secretary Agha
Wasif Abbas to work out a plan, sit together with the LG minister and
KWSB MD and start a survey for the 50MW power plant.
Mr
Shah also asked the divisional commissioners to plan water supply
schemes from the Indus River for cities located on or along the
embankment.
He also asked them to take necessary
measures to dispose of municipal water into drains instead of letting it
flow into rivers and other water bodies until water treatment plants
were installed in every district and taluka headquarters.
Rs162.9bn water supply schemes by PHE dept
The chief minister was also briefed on Rs162.9bn water supply schemes of the Sindh public health engineering (PHE) department.
PHE
Minister Fayaz Butt informed the meeting that 3,896 schemes, including
1,671 ongoing and 2,225 new, were in progress in 22 districts.
The
chief minister directed PHE secretary Tamizuddin Khero to work out a
detailed plan for construction of a drainage system for major villages
in the 22 districts.
“The drainage system may be designed as per population figures given in the new census,” he said.
The chief minister said that he would hold a third meeting on Dec 28 to review the progress further.
Provincial
ministers Manzoor Wassan, Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Chief Secretary Rizwan
Memon, Advocate General Zamir Ghumro, Planning and Development chairman
Mohammad Waseem, principal secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, World Bank
representatives, KWSB officials and others attended the meeting.
