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Tuesday March 19, 2024

New 100 MGD Dhabeji pumping station opens

By Our Correspondent
January 22, 2020

Criticising the Centre for not regularly convening meetings of the Council of Common Interests (CCI), Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that even when a CCI meeting is convened, there is delay in the release of its minutes and when the minutes are released they are deliberately made hotchpotch so that the implementation of the decisions taken in the meeting could be delayed further.

“This is how things are moving but even then we will struggle for getting the people of Sindh their due rights.” The CM made this point on Tuesday when he spoke at the inaugural ceremony of a water pumping house at Dhabeji with the capacity of 100 million gallons per day (MGD).

The pumping house was inaugurated by Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari by unveiling the plaque. The ceremony was also attended by provincial ministers Saeed Ghani, Syed Nasir Shah and Murtaza Baloch, advisers to the CM Murtaza Wahab and Aijaz Shah Shirazi, Local Government Secretary Roshan Shaikh, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board Managing Director Asadullah Khan and a large number of PPP workers belonging to Thatta, Sujawal and Karachi.

The CM said that after a hue and cry of over one year, the CCI meeting was convened; however, the minutes of the meeting were delayed for around one month and when they were released, they were not properly written. “But I assure you, your [people of Sindh] rights will be protected at all costs,” he remarked.

He thanked Bilawal for inaugurating development projects for a third time within a span of one month. “You [Bilawal] had inaugurated roads and underpasses in Karachi twice within 15 days and now after another 14 days you have inaugurated the newly established 100 MGD pumping House,” he said and added that the people of Hyderabad had also requested the PPP chairman to inaugurate their water supply, sanitation and road sector projects for which the Sindh government would again bother the chairman.

Taking a jibe at the federal government, Murad said some ministers were found unveiling the plaques of already launched projects. “If you are so interested in performing inaugurations of the projects, come to Sindh. Here we have completed a lot of schemes and we do not have time to inaugurate them,” he said.

“We would give you [the opportunity] to inaugurate our schemes, and as a matter of fact, you are in a habit of inaugurating the schemes other government had completed.”

Talking about the new pumping station, the CM said all its machinery, including motors, had been imported from Germany. “There are four pumping machines, each with a capacity of 25 MGD, therefore the total capacity would come to 100 MGD,” he said, remarking that the pumping station’s inauguration was a good news for the people of Karachi.

He explained that 260 MGD additional water was available in the system for Karachi but due to the lack of required infrastructure and defective conveyance system, it could not be provided to the city. “At present, Karachi is being provided 450 MGD and with the commission of the new 100 MGD pumping house, 50 MGD additional water would be added for Karachi. It means from the Kinjhar source, the city will be receiving 500 MGD,” Murad said, adding that Karachi was receiving 100 MGD from the Hub source but due to defects, the canal line losses had gone up to 30 MGD.

The CM said he had held a meeting and approved renovation, revamping and reconstruction of the water canal from Hub to District West so that 100 MGD could be brought to the city.

He also talked about the K-IV project, which he said would be completed soon. “We are constructing the K-IV in collaboration with the federal government and all the bottlenecks and design defects, if any, would be removed very soon and work would be started.”

Old pumping station

The old pumping station in Dhabeji was commissioned in 1959. It was manufactured by a German Company and its pumps were still being operated with extensive repairs but its efficiency had badly affected.

The old station was part of phase-I of the Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply scheme (K-I phase-I) and it had now outlived its design life after being in operation for the last 60 years. Therefore, the government decided to construct a new pumping house in place of the old one.