CM Sindh Murad Ali Shah/File photo 

Sindh?s chief minister has claimed that there is no acute water shortage in Karachi and that the century-old distribution system is to blame. He has ordered drawing up a plan to replace the 1,200-kilometre-long network.

Murad Ali Shah presided over a top-level follow-up meeting at the CM House on Tuesday to review the progress on the water, drainage and sanitation situation across the province in accordance with the Supreme Court?s directives issued earlier this month.

The chief executive said the water shortage in the city was not as acute as claimed by the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB), adding that the bureaucracy of the KWSB and the local government had been misguiding politicians for the past many years.

?I am a professional engineer; you can?t misguide me,? he told the KWSB officials. He said the inefficient distribution system was the actual problem that the water board had been concealing under the guise of water shortage. ?The actual problem is the rusted, defective, old and contaminated distribution network.?

Local Government Minister Jam Khan told the CM that the city?s water supply network was 1,200km long and its replacement would cost around Rs200 billion.

Murad said that according to the recent census, the population of the city was 16 million, adding that as per the water board?s standard, the water requirement was 50 gallons per capita per day.

?The city?s total water requirement comes to 800 million gallons per day (mgd). Karachi receives 550mgd from the Keenjhar Lake and 100mgd from Hub. By the end of 2018, the K-IV project would start providing 260mgd. An additional 65mgd would be available from another small scheme. So 975mgd would be enough for another three to four years.?

The CM said the water distribution system was 80 to 100 years old. ?It has completed its logical age and now not only are the old lines contaminating the water but they are also wasting it through seepage.?

He directed the LG minister to prepare a plan to replace the old distribution network. He said that whatever the cost of the project, he would provide the funds.

LG minister Khan said the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company had demanded the water board to pay Rs6 billion for supplying 50MW to the pumping stations of the K-IV project at the Keenjhar Lake.

The CM wondered if they should install their own LNG-based or wind-powered electricity plant to generate 50MW, as the funds were available for the K-IV project. He suggested that the power plant be installed within a year.

He tasked Energy Secretary Agha Wasif to draw up the plan, brainstorm with the LG minister and the KWSB chief and start a survey for the 50MW power plant.

The meeting was told that three types of wastewater municipal, hospital and industrial ? were being dumped into the Malir and Lyari rivers, and that there was a plan to install a 94mgd wastewater treatment plant in the city.

The CM was also briefed on the Public Health Engineering Department?s (PHED) water supply schemes worth Rs162.9 billion. PHED Minister Fayaz Ali Butt said 3,896 schemes were under way in 22 districts of Sindh.

Murad directed PHED Secretary Tameezuddin Khero to draw up a detailed plan for the construction of drainage systems in major villages of the 22 districts where the water supply schemes were under way. He directed divisional commissioners to provide him with water testing reports of their respective areas. ?I want you to take necessary measures to dispose of municipal wastewater into drains instead of releasing them into rivers and other water bodies.?

This discipline must be maintained until the installation of treatment plants in every district headquarters in the first phase and in the taluka headquarters in the second phase, he added.

The chief executive also directed the divisional commissioners to plan water supply schemes from the Indus River for the cities situated along the river embankments.

He concluded the meeting with the announcement that the third meeting on the province?s water, drainage and sanitation situation would be held on December 28.

The meeting was also attended by provincial ministers Manzoor Wassan and Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Advocate General Zamir Ghumro, Planning & Development Chairman Mohammad Waseem, CM?s Principal Secretary Sohail Rajput, World Bank representatives, secretaries of the health, industries and energy departments and chief engineers of different departments.