Addressing water shortage: After nine-year delay, work on K-IV scheme begins
The project will provide 260 million gallons of water every day to Karachi.
The K-IV project, which costs Rs25.5 billion, is expected to provide an additional 260MGD to Karachi in three years. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI:
After nine years of delay, the ground-breaking ceremony of the K-IV drinking water project was performed at CM House on Wednesday.
The federal and provincial governments are bearing the cost of the project, which has been estimated at Rs25.5 billion. The project is expected to be completed in three years, after which Karachi will get an additional 260 million gallons of water per day from River Indus.
Addressing the gathering, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said the project will be completed in three phases and the Sindh government is initiating work with its share of Rs13 billion. "The federal government has asked us to start the work and will later release the due share," he said, refuting media reports that the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) government had released Rs2 billion for the scheme. "We have not received a single penny from the federal government. The project has been pending for the last few years because of financial constraints," said Shah, adding that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership was keen to complete the project. Sindh cabinet members, elected representatives, bureaucrats and officials of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) were present at the ceremony.
Shah further said that Karachi's total water requirement is 1,000 million gallons per day (MGD) but only 550 MGD is being released. After the completion of the project, he hoped, Karachi's requirement will be resolved to some extent. "We have made all the necessary arrangements to revive Hub Dam and I hope 100 MGD from the dam will also be released to the city soon," he said.
"Karachi is the capital of Sindh and we will again make it the city of lights by providing all basic facilities including potable water to the people," he said reassuringly. According to him, every successive government in the past had neglected Karachi but the PPP is putting all its efforts in resolving citizens' issues. "People from Kashmir, Bangladesh and Afghanistan live in Karachi, yet there had been no proper planning on part of the federal government," he said, adding that PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari has directed him to come up with a 10-year plan for Karachi given its growing population.
Talking about the meagre amount released by the federal government from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), he said, "They have only released Rs22 billion for Sindh out of the total Rs525 billion allocated for the entire country," he said, adding that this is despite the fact that Sindh contributes more than 70 per cent to the country's tax collection revenue.
Sindh information and local government minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that people living in Sindh will come out on the roads against the federal government if it did not stop its double-standard policies. "It is the federal government's deliberate effort to create gas and electricity crises in Karachi and other districts of the province," he said. "People want to know why the federal government gives priority to Lahore over Karachi. Mega-schemes are being launched by the PML-N government only in Punjab while ignoring Sindh." He added that while more than 70 per cent natural gas and oil is produced in Sindh, yet there is hours-long load-shedding in megacities due to which industrial units, mainly in Karachi, are badly suffering.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2015.
After nine years of delay, the ground-breaking ceremony of the K-IV drinking water project was performed at CM House on Wednesday.
The federal and provincial governments are bearing the cost of the project, which has been estimated at Rs25.5 billion. The project is expected to be completed in three years, after which Karachi will get an additional 260 million gallons of water per day from River Indus.
Addressing the gathering, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said the project will be completed in three phases and the Sindh government is initiating work with its share of Rs13 billion. "The federal government has asked us to start the work and will later release the due share," he said, refuting media reports that the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) government had released Rs2 billion for the scheme. "We have not received a single penny from the federal government. The project has been pending for the last few years because of financial constraints," said Shah, adding that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership was keen to complete the project. Sindh cabinet members, elected representatives, bureaucrats and officials of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) were present at the ceremony.
Shah further said that Karachi's total water requirement is 1,000 million gallons per day (MGD) but only 550 MGD is being released. After the completion of the project, he hoped, Karachi's requirement will be resolved to some extent. "We have made all the necessary arrangements to revive Hub Dam and I hope 100 MGD from the dam will also be released to the city soon," he said.
"Karachi is the capital of Sindh and we will again make it the city of lights by providing all basic facilities including potable water to the people," he said reassuringly. According to him, every successive government in the past had neglected Karachi but the PPP is putting all its efforts in resolving citizens' issues. "People from Kashmir, Bangladesh and Afghanistan live in Karachi, yet there had been no proper planning on part of the federal government," he said, adding that PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari has directed him to come up with a 10-year plan for Karachi given its growing population.
Talking about the meagre amount released by the federal government from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), he said, "They have only released Rs22 billion for Sindh out of the total Rs525 billion allocated for the entire country," he said, adding that this is despite the fact that Sindh contributes more than 70 per cent to the country's tax collection revenue.
Sindh information and local government minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that people living in Sindh will come out on the roads against the federal government if it did not stop its double-standard policies. "It is the federal government's deliberate effort to create gas and electricity crises in Karachi and other districts of the province," he said. "People want to know why the federal government gives priority to Lahore over Karachi. Mega-schemes are being launched by the PML-N government only in Punjab while ignoring Sindh." He added that while more than 70 per cent natural gas and oil is produced in Sindh, yet there is hours-long load-shedding in megacities due to which industrial units, mainly in Karachi, are badly suffering.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2015.