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Thursday March 28, 2024

‘Dhabeji to begin supplying water after a month’

Four new hydrants of KWSB to begin working on Monday

By our correspondents
April 25, 2015
Karachi
After being closed for more than a month, the Dhabeji pumping station will begin working in the next 24 hours, said the Commissioner Karachi Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui on Friday.
He said the local government minister had taken serious notice of the water shortage in the city and had also set up a committee to monitor the supply of water to the city and overcome its shortage and a new scheme for the upgradation of Dhabeji pumping station will soon be approved.
The supply of water to Quaid-e-Azam Museum will also resume very soon, he said.
Addressing a press conference at his office with the managing director of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), Qutubuddin Shaikh, and other senior officials, the commissioner said the Dhabeji pumping station will begin working within 24 hours after being closed for more than a month and will add 50 million gallons per day of water to the city’s supply.
Referring to the Pipri water pumping station, the commissioner said the machinery was very old but it will be repaired within a fortnight.
Meanwhile, he said, two more pumping stations, including the one in Gharo, were also out of order.
He said a large amount of water from the supply of Karachi was pilfered and a team of the KWSB was probing the issue.
Meanwhile, said the commissioner, a plan had been chalked out to construct reservoirs to prevent water theft. He expressed his apprehension that the prevailing water shortage will aggravate in the coming months.
He further said that the local government minister had given him full powers to transfer and post any officer of the KWSB to ensure smooth water supply to Karachi.
Also speaking on the occasion, the KWSB MD Qutubuddin Shaikh said there were two pumps at the Dhabeji station and, according to him, the cost of a single one was Rs35 million.
He informed said the main issue with supplying water to the city was due to power outage, after which it took 25 hours to restart the pumping station.
However, a representative of the K-Electric, who was also present on the occasion, said the power outages were caused by old electricity cables at the pumping station.
The KWSB MD Shaikh pointed out the KE had spent Rs120 million to remove the fault in power cables and asked how could they be still the cause of outage and not load shedding?
He announced that owners of tanker services and hydrants will be present at the commissioner’s office every day from 11am to be able to listen to the people’s complaints. He urged the people not to pay exorbitant amounts for tankers of water and report anyone selling them at higher rates.
To further improve the supply of water to the city, said the KWSB MD, four new hydrants will also begin working from Monday. He said six district officers of the KWSB had been given the task of looking after water supply to Karachi.