Karachi’s K-IV remains a dream for ‘water-starved’ city years after launch

KARACHI: The completion of multibillion-rupee Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme, commonly known as K-IV, remains a distant dream even after its formal launch in 2011 as authorities on Thursday disclosed that despite groundbreaking of the project 13 years ago, only less than 50 per cent of construction is done.

The officials expect that first phase of the project could be completed in 2025 and that too “is subject to timely provision of funds”.

These details emerged during a briefing given to chairman of Water & Power Development Authority (Wapda) retired Lt-Gen Sajjad Ghani, who visited the K-IV construction site and reviewed the progress on various areas of the project.

A statement issued by Wapda said that the chairman visited the sites, including intake works, pumping stations, pressurised pipeline, access road, project offices and project colony.

Phase-I of the project is expected to be completed by Dec 2025 at the cost of Rs126bn

General Manager (Projects) South and Project Director Amir Mughal briefed the Wapda chairman about the contract-wise progress achieved so far.

He was also informed about the timelines for the remaining works and the plans to meet the targets.

“Financial progress and requirement of funds to complete the project in accordance with the timelines were also discussed during the [WAPDA chairman] visit,” said a Wapda statement while referring the briefing to the chairman.

“It was briefed that cumulative progress on the project stands at 46 per cent, while a sum of Rs59.5 billion has so far been spent on construction of the project. Phase-I of the project, with approved PC-I of Rs126 billion, is planned to be completed in December 2025, which is subject to timely provision of funds.”

The K-IV envisages supply of 650 million gallons per day (MGD) to Karachi from Keenjhar Lake. The project is planned to be completed in two phases. At present, Wapda is constructing Phase-I of the project to supply 260 MGD water to Karachi while Phase-II, when implemented, will also augment another 390 MGD water to the system for Karachi.

In October 2021 it was announced by the authorities that Wapda had completed the revised plan of the K-IV and with all planning, design, and procurement activities in place, the construction of the project would be completed by October 2023.

The fresh details shared in the briefing to the Wapda chairman showed that the situation was not that promising.

“Emphasising upon the significance of K-IV Project for Karachi, the Chairman directed the project team to expedite construction works for completion of the project as per the schedule,” said the WAPDA statement.

“He also directed them to maintain close liaison with other stakeholders for timely arrangement of power supply by the government of Sindh and augmentation of the water distribution system by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation.”

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2024