Drop by drop: What Karachi needs is water meters, say experts

KWSB's chief engineer admits that leakages, theft cannot be monitored without meters.

KARACHI: Why can't meters be installed for the proper distribution of Karachi's water supply? Nearly every participant at 'Water Issues in Karachi', a seminar arranged by NGO Shehri - Citizens for a Better Environment on Thursday, had this question for the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB). The question, however, remained unanswered.

KWSB chief engineer Jawed Shamim accepted the water supply board's weaknesses, saying that the gap in the demand and supply of water in the city could not be denied. Admitting that the installation of meters was the best solution for the water shortage in the city, he failed to provide a satisfactory reason for why they had not yet done this.

"Ten years ago, the KWSB planned to install meters but this plan was never implemented," he recalled, adding that the project was abandoned. "We now have to introduce new meters."

Shamim was of the opinion that the water loss reduction remedy had to be adopted. "Leakages in the system have to be mended and pilferages - the theft of water and the water that gives us no revenue - must be monitored," he asserted, conceding that this would only be possible with the installation of meters. According to him, all statistics related to the use of water in Karachi were mere 'guesstimates' since there was no tool in place to measure the water supply.

Meanwhile, Dr Noman Ahmed, a professor at NED University, stressed the need for the KWSB to educate its consumers through the media and other platforms. He revealed that in a survey he conducted in the city, he had discovered that barely three per cent of Karachi's population was willing to pay bills for water. "The other 97 per cent considered it [water] a free gift from God," he remarked. "If a consumer is not aware of its scarcity, how can he use it adequately?"

He also advised the KSWB to carry out an incentive-based drive for the removal of suction pumps, saying that it could be done gradually at the neighbourhood level.

Claiming that Karachi generated more than 15,000 tons of solid waste every day, Dr Ahmed said that there was sufficient evidence to suggest that the bulk of this waste was organic and could, therefore, be transformed into biogas. According to him, turning waste into energy was an avenue that must be explored by the water board.

"KWSB must consider setting up its own power generation unit to break free from the overload of power bills," he recommended, urging the water board to recover revenue from bulk and retail consumers on an emergency basis. "No institution can survive with a debt burden of over Rs50 billion."

Dr Ahmed also called for the regulation of water tanker services. "It is now a commercial operation that must function under price control and checks by the regulatory authorities," he said, adding that similar controls were needed for the bottled water industry.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2015.