Tuesday, Jul 01, 2014
Karachi: Pakistan’s commercial hub suffered acute shortages of water on Tuesday, after two mega pipelines burst overnight.
Thousands of homes were without water, wreaking havoc on fasting citizens on the second day of Ramadan.
The dilapidated pipelines of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), the key water supplier to the city, at the Dhabeji town facility exploded on Monday night. The incident disrupted supply of 500 million gallons of water to the city, sources said.
A KWSB spokesman said that the repair work was going on at the site and it would take until late on Tuesday evening to restore a part of the pipeline that would partially restore pumping capacity. He claimed that the supply of 100 million gallons of water remained suspended after the pipeline explosion.
The water board blamed the private electric supply monopoly for the burst pipeline, saying there was a 20-minute power outage that caused a reversal of the water flow into the pipeline, resulting in the rupture.
However, the electric company dismissed the KWSB’s reasoning.
The existing water supply network in Karachi is over 100 years old and has become outdated and highly inefficient.
Most of the major pipelines have outlived their technical life and require heavy replacement and renovation.
This city of more than 18 million people is supplied around 640 million gallons of water a day (MGD) out of which only 440 MGD is filtered.
Due to corruption and inefficiencies 30 per cent water is stolen or leaked.
Karachi was already facing water shortages after the Hub Dam, one of the key water sources for the city, dried up, depriving the city of about 90 MGD.
By Mohammad Ashraf?Correspondent
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
