K-IV phase-I completion may be delayed by few months, PA told

The Sindh Assembly was informed on Monday that completion of the ongoing work on phase-I of the K-IV Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme could be delayed by a few months instead of completing it by the June 2018 deadline.

Local Government Minister Jam Khan told the House about the delay while responding to written and oral queries of the concerned lawmakers during the question hour of the legislature’s session pertaining to the LG department.

Khan said that a number of reasons had been hindering timely completion of the work on phase-I of the K-IV project, which would have the capacity of supplying 260 million gallons per day (mgd). A delay of two to four months in completing the project is expected, he added.

He said that it had been decided under the agreement signed with the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) that work on the first phase would be completed by this June. He also said that it had been a gigantic task to bring additional water to the city from a distance of 120km. Under the project three filtration plants would be established: one each at Pipri, at the Super Highway near the Baqai University Hospital and at Manghopir, he added.

The minister said water being supplied under the K-IV project would first be filtered at these plants before supplying it to the people in the city. He said that up to Rs2.5 billion had been released by the provincial government of the total Rs5 billion required to compensate the people whose land had been acquired for constructing the project.

He clarified that only financial compensation would be provided to the people whose land had been acquired for the project and that there was no plan to provide them with alternative land.

Khan said that so far Rs7.8 billion had been spent on the K-IV project, adding that the Sindh and federal governments had released Rs5.2 billion and Rs6.4 billion respectively for the project.

He said the Centre had refused to share the cost incurred by the Sindh government for acquiring land for the project, adding that the federal administration would be urged to share half the costs because Sindh accounted for 70 per cent of the country’s revenue generation.

He claimed that the K-IV project was counted among one of the biggest water supply schemes in the world and it would help resolve the water shortage issue of the city to a large extent. He said 65mgd each would be provided to the proposed Pipri and Manghopir filtration plants while 130mgd would be provided to the Super Highway filtration plant.

The minister said that it was wrong to assume that the K-IV project was being built just to benefit the residents of Bahria Town, adding that the Sindh government was responsible for providing water to every part of the city, wherever there is a shortage, including Bahria Town.

He said 12,000 acres had been acquired for phase-II of the K-IV project while its feasibility report was ready, adding that work would start whenever funds would be available to the government for the second phase.

Khan said the government intended to start work on the S-III Greater Karachi Sewerage Development Plan, under which sewerage and wastewater being generated in the city would be disposed of in a protected manner.