75m gallons of water is lost because of broken pumps

KWSB has spent over Rs22 million on repairs, maintenance of key pumping machines but much more is needed.

KARACHI: Engineers attribute a 75-million gallon water shortage in Karachi to broken pumps, power cuts and theft.

According to sources at the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), their electrical and mechanical works department has not been able to keep the pumping machines in working order. To make matters worse, the standby machine was not repaired after it broke down a while ago.

The water board’s largest machine is located at the Pipri pumping station - one of the main ones in the city. It sends 12.5 million gallons of water into the metropolis every day but has been out of order for the last nine days, KWSB engineer Rashid Siddiqui told The Express Tribune. The matter has been reported to the chief engineer.

When contacted, KWSB MD Sajjad Abbasi told The Express Tribune that he had been away for some days and was not in a position to comment as such. Electrical and mechanical works chief engineer Zaheer Abbas Zaidi would be able to offer more answers.

Zaidi explained that the Pipri pumping machine had stopped working a day before Eidul Azha and had been taken out for repairs. They expected to reinstall it by Sunday morning. Another machine with the capacity of pumping four million gallons also stopped working on Thursday night, but was repaired and reinstalled the same day, he added.

According to Zaidi, the board had reduced the supply across the city because people used less water in winter.

When asked, Zaidi said that the standby pumping machine had been out of order for more than 18 years but they were unable to replace it because they didn’t have enough money. The water board has been strapped for cash for a long time. It has spent over Rs22 million on repairs and maintenance of key pumping machines but much more is needed.

Meanwhile, the Dhabeji pumping stations were unable to supply water to the city on Friday due to power cuts that started at 11:40 am. It was reported that the power outages were likely to continue till late night on Friday, affecting the supply of 40 million gallons of water.

The theft of thee million gallons of water from KWSB’s trunk lines caused a further shortage of water to the SITE, Baldia and Keamari areas. The amount of water stolen accounted for 75 per cent of the total supply of water to the areas. The water board alleged that the hydrant mafia and the police were responsible for the damage to the lines and the loss of water.

Sewage disposal

According to Zaidi, four machines had been hard at work getting rid of the 24 million gallons of waste that got stuck in Clifton after the CID bomb blast damaged a sewerage pumping station. They had managed to get rid of 10 million gallons. The remaining four million gallons of sewage will be taken care of after they enhance the capacity of the pumping machines.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2010.