Murad calls for improving quality of groundwater across Sindh

Through the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), the Sindh government provides potable water to 16.567 million people of rural and urban areas of the province, except Karachi and Hyderabad, which is 53 per cent of the province’s population.

PHED Secretary Tamizuddin Khero disclosed this during a meeting at the Chief Minister House on Monday. This was the fourth consecutive meeting on the provision of potable water to the people of the province.

Khero also told CM Syed Murad Ali Shah that the PHED had developed a drainage network covering 12.513 million people, which constituted 40 per cent of the total population of the province.

It may be noted here that Karachi’s and Hyderabad’s urban areas have their own drainage and water supply systems and organisations. Therefore, their facilities have not been counted or included here.

The chief executive said during the meeting that the PHED was the most important government department in terms of provision of potable water and being responsible for the provision of the drainage facility.

“Just you [the PHED] has to manage it in the larger interest of the people of the province, otherwise you have a vast network and schemes,” he directed the minister and secretary of the PHED.

Secretary Khero said the total quantity of water required for drinking in the existing schemes of the PHED was about 340mgd, of which 122mgd was groundwater and the remaining surface water. On this CM Murad said there was a further need of assessing the quantity and quality of groundwater.

Khero said that according to the latest census, the total population of the province came to 47.888 million, of which 24.91 million, or 52 per cent, were urban residents and the remaining rural, adding that the PHED served 31.243 million people (65.24 per cent) across the province.

PHED Minister Fayaz Ali Butt said there was a freshwater zone in the province in which 184 urban water supply schemes, including 13 reverse-osmosis (RO) plants, were operating. They include 22 projects in Khairpur, 11 in Naushehro Feroze, nine in Kambar, eight in Dadu, seven each in Shaheed Benazirabad, Larkana and Shikarpur, four each in Sukkur and Jacobabad, three in Kashmore and two in Ghotki, he said, adding that four RO plants had been given to Kambar.

This shows that through 184 water supply schemes, including 13 RO plants, potable water is being provided to 7.922 million people living in the rural areas, he concluded. On this the CM said the groundwater’s quality in the freshwater zone was deteriorating, for which separate improvement measures would be adopted.

Water supply projects

Murad was told that Badin had 18 water supply schemes, including six RO plants, Sanghar 14, Umerkot 11, Mirpurkhas and Matiari seven each, Jamshoro Thatta Tando Allahyar and Tharparkar six each, Sujawal five, Tando Mohammad Khan three and Hyderabad two, covering 7.9 million of the population.

According to Khero, Tharparkar has 786 water schemes with 703 RO plants, Jamshoro 219 schemes with 99 plants, Badin 204 with 83, Sanghar 199 with 106, Thatta 170 with 84, Mirpurkhas 165 with 43, Umerkot 148 with 53, Dadu 147 schemes, Karachi 137 schemes with 63 plants, Khairpur and Kambar 119 schemes each, Tando Allahyar 97 schemes with 64 plants, Hyderabad 93 with 48, Matiari 79 with 55, Tando Mohammad Khan 75 with 51, Jacobabad 68 schemes, Shaheed Benazirabad 61 schemes, Sukkur 58 schemes with seven plants, Sujawal 54 with 43, Kashmore 50 with 29, Ghotki 33 schemes, Shikarpur 28 schemes with eight plants, Larkana 21 schemes and Naushehro Feroze 19 schemes.

This shows that 1,507 RO plants and 800 water supply schemes (groundwater and river water) are catering to 8.645 million people of the urban areas of the province.  

Urban drainage schemes

The chief executive was told that in the urban areas of the province, 22 drainage schemes of 16.319mgd were operating in Khairpur, 14 of 12.582mgd in Sanghar, 12 of 9.3mgd in Badin, 11 of 7mgd in Naushehro Feroze, 10 of 10.299mgd in Shaheed Benazirabad, nine of 6.501mgd in Kambar, eight of 8.068mgd in Dadu, eight of 4.138mgd in Umerkot, seven of 16.354mgd in Larkana, seven of 6.368mgd in Shikarpur, seven of 5.326mgd in Kashmore, seven of 4.69mgd in Sujawal, six of 8.474mgd in Ghotki, six of 13.026mgd in Sukkur, six of 3.017mgd in Jamshoro, six of 10.242mgd in Mirpurkhas, six of 4.627mgd in Tando Allahyar, six of 1.615mgd in Tharparkar, five of 6.240mgd in Jacobabad, five of 4.188mgd in Thatta, three of 3.381mgd in Tando Mohammad Khan and two of 0.304mgd in Hyderabad.

This shows that 177 schemes of 159.556mgd have been draining away wastewater produced by 7.72 million of the urban population living in 24 districts.  

Rural drainage projects

The meeting was also informed of 948 schemes draining away 91.334mgd of wastewater produced by 4.793 million of the rural population. The details of the projects are as follows:

Khairpur has 168 schemes of 6.567mgd, Larkana 86 of 3.824mgd, Shaheed Benazirabad 76 of 3.59mgd, Shikarpur 72 of 3.966mgd, Naushehro Feroze 62 of 4.077mgd, Kambar 52 of 2.851mgd, Ghotki 48 of 2.595mgd, Sukkur 43 of 2.249mgd, Sanghar 43 of 1.732mgd, Matiari 42 of 28.59mgd, Karachi 41 of 9.436mgd, Dadu 39 of 2.222mgd, Badin 30 of 0.981mgd, Mirpurkhas 29 of 11.676mgd, Hyderabad 28 of 1.192mgd, Jacobabad 22 of 0.848mgd, Tando Mohammad Khan 15 of 1.203mgd, Jamshoro 15 of 1.795mgd, Thatta nine of 0.652mgd, Sujawal seven of 0.225mgd, Kashmore six of 0.339mgd and Tharparkar one of 0.02mgd.

Appreciating the vast network of services of the PHED in the areas of water supply and drainage, CM Murad said he had reports that various projects of the department needed to be rehabilitated.

On this the PHED secretary said he had proposed 1,671 schemes for overhauling, adding that the PHED had drawn up plans for 2,225 new water supply and drainage schemes that would cost Rs97 billion. The CM ordered making a priority list and then submitting a summary for his approval.

The meeting was also attended by Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Planning & Development Chairman Mohammad Waseem, CM’s Principal Secretary Sohail Rajput and other relevant officials.