Karachi facing water shortage due to power cuts

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Karachi is experiencing a water shortage of about 20 mgd daily and by the fifth day it had reached the shortage level of 90 mgd because of the shortage of power supply to its pumping stations.

“The Water Board is unable to supply 650 mgd water which has by now come down to 450 mgd,” a spokesman of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) disclosed, adding that a water crisis had developed in all areas of the city because power cut by the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC). 

The KWSB has now enforced rotated water supply system and there had been shut down of water in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on November 25. 

There will be no water supply to PAF Masroor, Baldia, Sher Shah, Pak Colony, Old Golimar, Nazimabad and SITE from 8 pm on November 26 for next the 24 hours, a KWSB announcement said. 

It had already been warned the disconnection of power supply to the pumping stations of the KWSB could cause a severe crisis situation. 

The KWSB, a public utility organization, has been supplying water on a very nominal rate on no profit no loss basis, despite the rate of recovery being on the lower side.