Only 30pc consumers pay water bills, PAC told

Only 400,000 to 500,000 out of a total of 1.7 million customers of Karachi’s water utility pay their bills, and defaulters include the Sindh Governor House and the Chief Minister House.

This grim figure was disclosed by the managing-director of the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB) to a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of the Sindh Assembly on Thursday.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) met at the committee room of the provincial assembly on to consider audit reports on the KWSB accounts for the financial year 2010-11. PAC Chairman Saleem Raza Jalbani chaired the meeting.

KWSB Managing Director Misbahuddin Farid told the meeting that several federal and provincial governments’ institutions were on the list of defaulting organisations, saying those bulk customers had to pay dues of billions of rupees.

He said the KWSB was no more supplying water to the Governor House and the CM House for free. The list of defaulters also included the official residences of the speaker and the deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly, he said. 

Farid stated that except for a lone meeting, which was held a few days back, the board of governors of the water utility had never met in the last six years, but efforts would be made in future to convene a meeting of the board every month.

The PAC chairman, who is an MAP of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, said the KWSB’s affairs had improved in the last few years. However, he saw room for further improvement, saying that more efforts had to be made for the recovery of water dues from the defaulting organisations and other customers.

Later, talking to media persons, the KWSB chief said he had never denied corruption in his organisation, but there were shortcomings in the working of the water utility like those in any other public sector institutions, and they had to be rectified.