Cutting losses: KWSB may ban connections for new apartment complexes

Water board to meet builders and developers to warn them.

KARACHI:

Burdened with its inability to make residents pay their water bills on one end and the government’s refusal to raise the water tariff on the other, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) is now thinking about placing a ban on providing new connections to apartment buildings in the city.

The water utility’s managing director, Misbahuddin Farid, also endorsed the news on Thursday. KWSB runs a monthly deficit as high as Rs700 million, as it struggles to get consumers pay their bills. The government’s refusal to increase the water tariff has also not helped the utility.

Financial woes have restricted its ability to finance key projects, including the Rs29 billion K-IV project, which will add 260 million gallons of water (MGD) per day to the city’s water supply. The federal government later decided to foot 33 per cent of the bill, with rest of the funds to be provided by the provincial and district governments. Karachi’s total water demand currently stands at 1080 MGD, while the supply is around 640 MGD, says KWSB.

This will arguably be the first time that the utility will impose a moratorium on new connections, as the Board hardly discontinues connections in case of non payment of bills. Farid said, however, that the situation has become rather dire lately. “We are not left with any other option as builders and government agencies allow the construction of one high rise after another.”

The water board plans to meet the Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) officials over the next few days to warn them of the impeding water crisis.

The statement comes days after the board announced that it will stop addressing complaints from residents that live in the six cantonments boards in the city.



“Multi-storey buildings are being approved in cantonment areas. They [Builders, cantonment board officials] don’t realise what harm this does to our system. How can a small pipeline, which was laid 10 years ago for a small house, meet the needs of a six storey building?” asked Farid. Hundreds of residential and commercial buildings have surfaced in Malir, Gulstan-e-Johar, Shahrah-e-Faisal, PECHS and Clifton during the last decade.

When the building control department gives the permission for the construction of a new building, the water board lays down the pipelines from its own budget. The haphazard planning has already forced the utility to ration water supply to many areas on an alternate basis.

“We are the managing water shortage by shutting off supply to one locality for the sake of another. This is going to get worse as tail-end areas such as Korangi and Lyari [will] face problems,” said Farid.

KWSB is dependent on the provincial and federal governments for most of its funding. The K-IV project, for example, was conceived in 2006.

Sewage plants running below capacity

Of the 472 MGD of sewage that the city produces every day, only 55 MGD, or 11 per cent, of it is treated. The rest is rather unceremoniously dumped into the Arabian Sea. The water board operates three sewage treatment plants in SITE, Mehmoodabad and Maripur, which have a combined capacity to treat 151 MGD. However, all of these plants are running below the optimal level, and the utility’s financial health has prevented it from getting them refurbished. While the water board has embarked on the construction of new treatment plants as part of the Greater Sewage S-III project, its cost has ballooned from Rs7.9 billion to Rs14 billion due to delays.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2012.