Crisis averted: Water board wins court approval for restoration of power supply

Two judges also ordered water board to pay Rs70 million to the power utility within a week.

KARACHI: A water crisis in the city has been averted as the high court has ordered the electricity utility to make sure it supplies uninterrupted power to the water board’s pumping stations.

On Tuesday, Sindh High Court’s Justice Faisal Arab gave orders to the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) to refrain from cutting power to the pumping stations operated by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) across the city.

Justice Arab, who headed the bench, also ordered the KWSB authorities to pay the outstanding dues of monthly electricity bills to the power utility within a week.



The KWSB management had approached the high court on Monday, seeking a direction for the power utility to stop prolonged power cuts to the pumping stations under the pretext of routine load-shedding.

But this row between the electricity and water utilities is not a new one. In April 2012, the water board obtained a court order, which restrained the power utility from disconnecting electricity supply to the board’s pumping stations to recover unpaid bills.

KESC had appealed against the single bench verdict, after which the court ordered the water board to continue paying monthly bills without any delays. However, the court also made it clear that the power supply to its pumping stations would not be disrupted.

According to the water board’s lawyer, Abrar Hasan, the KESC had started disconnecting power supply to the water pumps for four hours every day. Power suspensions to the water pumping stations were disrupting the operations by 30 hours, he explained.

The board had pleaded the court direct the power utility to ensure smooth power supply to the pumping stations and restrain from disconnecting power supply for long hours. As the citizens faced acute water shortage, the water board went to the court, which had issued a notice to the KESC authorities to file their replies by Tuesday.

Sindh advocate general Khalid Javed Khan said the people were suffering due to the disruption of water board’s operations. KESC’s lawyer opposed, however, these arguments, saying his client was forced to do so since it had not been received bills lying outstanding with the water board.

After hearing the arguments, the two judges directed the KWSB management to pay Rs70 million to the KESC within seven days.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.