Major water supply project for Karachi delayed till 2023: report

• In July 2016, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board had assigned the construction work for phase one of K-IV to FWO
  
• According to official estimates, completion of the first phase will provide Karachi with an additional 260 million gallons of water per day
  
• It will spread across 120 canals and a network of pipelines
  

KARACHI: There are grim chances for Karachiites to have a sufficient quantity of water in the coming two-three years as a major water supply project for the metropolis has been shelved for a few more years, The News reported on Wednesday.

In July 2016, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) had assigned the construction work for phase one of K-IV to the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO). 

According to official estimates, completion of the first phase will provide Karachi with an additional 260 million gallons of water per day and will spread across 120 canals and a network of pipelines.

The design and alignments of the project had to be changed again and again for unexplainable reasons. The project has been delayed for the last many years.

Read more: Meeting called in Lahore to discuss K-IV project

It was the responsibility of the water board to provide land and electricity for the project, but it failed and wasted three years from 2015 to 2018, read the publication, adding that as per the official documents, the completion of the first phase of the ‘Fourth Additional Water Supply Project’ has been delayed till 2023.

The Ministry of Water and Power has sent the timeline of the project to the Ministry of Planning and Special Initiatives and after three months of approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), a consultant will be appointed by April this year. 

Work on the K-IV project is likely to start by November 2021, as the consultant will then submit the project design, PC-I, and bidding documents by July next year.

The Water and Power Development Authority has to complete the civil work of the project in 20 months, by July 2023, the official documents suggested.

K-IV has already been shelved for about 18 years and civil work of the project has also been stalled since August 2018.