Stalled water project

Karachi's water crisis has become so normal that its abnormality scarcely attracts official urgency anymore. Yet Thursday's revelation that the estimated cost of K-IV project - the city's long-promised lifeline - has ballooned more than ten times while its capacity has been slashed to barely a third of what was originally envisaged should jolt policymakers into recognising the sheer negligence.

Envisaged in 2007 at a cost of Rs15.8 billion to supply 650 million gallons of water daily, the project which is also called Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme has now become a Rs172 billion undertaking expected to deliver only 260 million gallons a day. Delayed by well over a decade and still awaiting completion, the project has become a cautionary tale of how poor planning and bureaucratic inertia can undermine even the most essential public infrastructure. The consequences have been measured in the hardships endured daily by Karachi's nearly 25 million residents. Those hardships are now woven into the fabric of urban life. In countless neighbourhoods, municipal supply is either erratic or virtually nonexistent, forcing households to organise their lives around water deliveries that may or may not arrive. Families routinely spend thousands of rupees each month on private tankers. For those unable to afford tanker water, the alternative is often to install bore wells and draw groundwater from beneath the city. But years of unchecked extraction and seawater intrusion have rendered much of Karachi's groundwater increasingly saline. Water obtained through boring is frequently unsuitable for drinking and, in many areas, even for washing.

The federal government's renewed commitment to funding the project is welcome, as is the Planning Minister's insistence that critical components be completed in tandem. But this cannot become another exercise in optimistic timelines unsupported by effective implementation.