Endemic delays

Most govt projects aimed at improving civic facilities are never completed on the schedule announced at launch

Delays have become endemic with us. Most government projects aimed at improving civic facilities are never completed on the schedule announced at the launch of the schemes. The consequence is that the time overruns result in cost overruns. Of course, somewhere some people benefit from the increase in cost of the plan. This is the way our governments work. It is difficult to keep track of the date given at the launch of a project for the time span in which it was to be completed. The whole thing has become a jumble of the launch date and year of a project and the year in which it was slated to be completed. It has become an unending process of date after date enough to confuse the public. In this hazy situation, they cling to the hope that someday good luck will smile on them and the project will be completed.

The latest to be added to the long list of delayed projects is the Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan (S-111 project). Envisaged by the KWSB, the scheme aims at an integrated system of sewerage collection, its treatment and disposal in order to improve the environmental conditions of the city. It was launched in 2013 with finances provided by the Centre and the provincial government. Now it will receive financial assistance from the World Bank and will be undertaken under a public-private partnership. Earlier, the Supreme Court ordered completion of the project by December this year. Poor planning and late disbursement of funds have further delayed the project. Now it will likely take another five years to be completed.

The city has been without a sewerage treatment plant for the past 12 years when three KWSB treatment plants stopped functioning. Since 2008, around 460 MGD of untreated sewage is dumped into the sea harming marine life and the environment. We, the people, should console ourselves with Bertrand Russell’s book entitled In praise of idleness.