Karachi’s water woes diagnosed

Experts suggest 50pc private stakeholders, bulk metering and end to tanker mafia

to help meet city’s growing water needs

A seminar, sponsored by the Shehri-CBE (Citizens for a Better Environment), organised a seminar at a hotel on Friday evening to diagnose the water woes of the metropolis.

Amber Alibhai, general secretary of Shehri-CBE, gave the welcome address and an overview of the water crisis.

Engineer Parvez Sadiq said that the minimum requirement of water per person was 20 gallons daily. He said one of the reasons for the water woes was that hydrants had become a lucrative business and that a 5,000-gallon tanker sold for around Rs50,000. He said that the annual value of water sold was Rs438 billion.

Among the possible solutions he suggested were: the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board should be proactive and would require the water utility to meet at least six times a year; there should be 50 percent stakeholders who are not government functionaries which, he said, would increase productivity; there should be no political interference for operations while at present even transferring an errant lineman is a problem because of his political affiliations; the authorities should make use of advanced human resource management techniques; there should be a bulk metering in real-time using modern wireless technology; and a modern computerised water information data was also needed. 

Engineer Sadiq regretted that 14 meters had been imported from Germany but were never installed.

He said the KWSB was unable to finance projects since it could not repay donor agencies and banks. The KWSB, he said, had losses to the tune of 30 percent. The losses, he said had been reduced to 25 percent by smart metering.

All public areas, he said, must use aeration taps with auto-close, which should be made available at KWSB centres. He said water hydrants were being controlled by political parties and mafias.

Misbahuddin Farid, managing director of the KWSB, highlighted issues and challenges.

Among these, he mentioned the lopsided vertical and horizontal expansion of the city. He said that with the distant source of water supply to the city, around 200 kilometres, and the amount of water being stationary, there was a stress situation in that the same amount of water was being made to cater to a larger infrastructure. 

While earlier only one storey of a building was being supplied, now that same amount of water had to supply four storeys, he added.

Another factor he cited was the rapid expansion of Katchi Abadis. This, he said, meant catering to a rapidly increasing population with the source remaining the same. 

Farid also mentioned the encroachment of the water trunk mains. He said there was mass theft of water from the bulk water system for cultivation. He also mentioned illegal hydrants and unauthorised water connections.

He said that of the one million consumers, only 0.27 million were paying their bills regularly. He said another disadvantage was that the KWSB was not vested with magisterial powers for the recovery of dues. End-users, he said, suffered most.

Pumping stations, he said, lost their efficiency with the passage of time. He criticised the unabated increase in high-rise buildings and, in this regard, made it a point of mention the coming up of a 64-storey building in the Clifton area.  The talks were followed by a question-answer session.