Water supply

Karachi is supplied 650 million gallons of daily water against its requirement for 1,100 MGD. This leaves a shortfall of nearly 40%. Now hopes have rekindled about resumption of work on the stalled Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme as one of the components of the scheme – the transmission line from the starting point to Karachi – is to be completed with the assistance of the World Bank. The transmission line would supply 130mgd, including 65mgd to the metropolis, easing the water shortage in the city. Over the years, the scheme has run into roadblocks ranging from delay in clearing dues of contractors leading them to stop work. Contractors hired for the project stopped work on the project in September last year as the government had not cleared their dues amounting to Rs500 million.

The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board had floated the idea of the scheme in 2012. The Sindh government, however, okayed it two years later. A preliminary study of the project was conducted in 2016-17. Thereafter, the allocation of funds and their release have been sluggish, which went on to delay the project endlessly. There has been a noticeable discrepancy in the allocation of funds and the actual amount released year after year. In the 2017-18 budget, one billion rupees were allocated, but only Rs250 million were released. The next year there was no allocation of funds. There was a huge gap in the budgetary allocation and the actual release of funds in 2019-20. In the budget for the ongoing year, Rs150 million were approved, of which only Rs37 million were released in December last year. Of this, Rs30 million were paid to contractors and Rs7 million to the consulting firm. However, work is yet to be resumed.

The government has admitted that the project has been inordinately delayed, but now it will pick up pace with the help of the World Bank. The scheme is expected to be completed in the next four years.