PHOTO: FILE
Both the S-III Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan and the K-IV Karachi Bulk Water Supply project have been delayed for ten years on account of federal government reservations and run the risk of being delayed further despite the allocations.
The K-IV delay in particular means that Karachiites will continue to live with water woes in coming years. The S-III delay, meanwhile, will result in further damage to Pakistan’s marine life and coastal environment as the polluted waters of the Lyari and Malir rivers continue to flow to the sea without treatment.
Karachi water crisis to worsen over coming days
S-III Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan
In his budget speech, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said the federal government decided not to allocate any money for S-III under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2019-20. He said this was because the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) decided that the centre would only foot 50% of the mega project’s bill.
In light of the Ecnec decision, the federal government agreed to only pay Rs3.9 billion for S-III based on its initial estimated cost of Rs7.9 billion even though the current cost estimates stand at Rs36 billion. Unless the centre provides money to cover half of S-III’s actual cost, it would be impossible to comply with Supreme Court’s instructions to finish the project by 2020.
Despite this, Shah said work on the Haroonabad treatment plant, a component of S-III, will start this December and work on the 33.32 kilometre transmission line in the Lyari canal will be completed by the end of this July. Development work on the Korangi 4 treatment plant and the second phase of S-III will start in the current fiscal as well. The chief minister announced Rs5 billion from the upcoming budget will be set aside for this purpose.
K-IV Karachi Bulk Water Supply
Negligence on the part of both the federal and Sindh governments, and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has resulted in the cost of K-IV ballooning from the original Rs25.5 billion to the current Rs75 billion.
In order to cover up their own mistakes, the Sindh government has assigned consultant Nespak with scrutinising the massive hike in the project’s cost. Its meager Rs800 million allocation for K-IV appears to be motivated by the controversy the project has accumulated.
Rs190b apportioned for Ministry of Water Resources
As things stand, Karachi is supplied only 460 million gallons per day (MGD) of water despite a demand of 1,100 MGD for its population of 25 million. When K-IV was initiated 10 years ago, it was envisioned the project would supply 650 MGD, more than meeting the 640 MGD shortfall the city currently faces.
Actual work on the first phase of the project which would see the supply of 260 MGD started in 2016 and was expected to be finished by 2018. But so far, only 20% of the works have been completed on account of cost overruns and slow pace of KWSB.
While announcing the new budget on Friday, Shah pointed out that the federal and Sindh governments had spent Rs6.9 billion and Rs7.9 billion on K-IV so far. He did not, however, say anything about when the project would finally be completed.
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