Power outage at Dhabeji affects water supply
Karachi to face water shortage until Thursday, says KWSB spokesperson
PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI:
Karachi will possibly face water shortage until tomorrow (Thursday) as a result of the suspension of electricity to Dhabeji pumping station at 12:38am on Tuesday for over half an hour, according Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) spokesperson.
As a result of the power outage, the city was deprived of 60 million gallons of water as water supply to it remained completely suspended for an extended duration.
In light of this development, the city will likely face a shortage of water until Thursday, the spokesperson said, explaining that it would usually take 30 to 45 minutes to restart water extraction pumps if the electricity supply to Dhabeji pumping station was suspended even for a few minutes and emptied water pipelines took hours to replenish.
He complained that last week, on Wednesday, too, two water pipelines had burst due to a sudden shut down of power supply and consequently, around 215 million gallons of water couldn't be supplied to the metropolis.
However, according to a statement issued by K-Electric, electricity to Dhabeji pumping station is being supplied as per usual and the supply to the pumping station was restored within a few minutes of the power outage on Tuesday. The power utility has clarified that all pumping stations operating under the KWSB are exempted from load shedding, while electricity to all major pumping stations is supplied via alternative sources besides usual ones.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2020.
Karachi will possibly face water shortage until tomorrow (Thursday) as a result of the suspension of electricity to Dhabeji pumping station at 12:38am on Tuesday for over half an hour, according Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) spokesperson.
As a result of the power outage, the city was deprived of 60 million gallons of water as water supply to it remained completely suspended for an extended duration.
In light of this development, the city will likely face a shortage of water until Thursday, the spokesperson said, explaining that it would usually take 30 to 45 minutes to restart water extraction pumps if the electricity supply to Dhabeji pumping station was suspended even for a few minutes and emptied water pipelines took hours to replenish.
He complained that last week, on Wednesday, too, two water pipelines had burst due to a sudden shut down of power supply and consequently, around 215 million gallons of water couldn't be supplied to the metropolis.
However, according to a statement issued by K-Electric, electricity to Dhabeji pumping station is being supplied as per usual and the supply to the pumping station was restored within a few minutes of the power outage on Tuesday. The power utility has clarified that all pumping stations operating under the KWSB are exempted from load shedding, while electricity to all major pumping stations is supplied via alternative sources besides usual ones.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2020.