Hub Dam to start supplying water in a week

Pumps will retrieve water from the dam’s dead level and supply 50MGD to District West

KARACHI: Water supply to District West will finally be resumed after the inauguration of the first phase of a Rs300 million project that will allow Hub Dam to supply 50 million gallons per day.

Commenting on the benefits of the project, local government minister Jam Khan Shoro said that the project will benefit Karachi, especially District West, as a pump has been installed that can fetch water from the dam’s dead level. Before this project, he said that Hub Dam used to supply 100MGD to the city through its canal system but this came to a halt in February this year after the lack of rain.

Though the water level has only risen three feet above the dead level after rainfall in the dam’s catchment areas, the minister believes that soon they will be able to fetch 50 million gallons of water after the installation of two additional pumps.

Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) managing director Misbahuddin Farid told The Express Tribune that they had to find an alternative source of water for District West and they had an eye on the remaining water in the dead level of Hub Dam. The proposal to fetch the remaining water with the help of additional pumps was presented to then chief minister Qaim Ali Shah in April and later the KWSB was asked to start work on the project. Farid added that the system will start pumping water after a week.

If there is more rainfall in the catchment areas, the situation will be under control and they will be able to continue water supply till the end of the year, said Farid.

A superintendent engineer of District West, Owais Malik, said he believes that the supply will only last for three months. From the 50MGD additional supply, 20MGD will be wasted in line losses but if we manage to get 30MGD then the supply, which now comes every 10 days, will come every five days.

Malik explained that his district has five towns and water is supplied through four different lines. He said till now his district was receiving water through the 72-inch-diametre North East Karachi line and, with addition of water from the Hub Dam, the situation will surely improve.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2016.