Three consecutive power breakdowns in a short span of 33 hours on K-Electric's transmission network virtually brought the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KW&SB) Dhabeji water supply system to a halt, causing acute shortage of water to Karachi in this sizzling weather.
KW&SB officials said water supply to Karachi from the strategic Dhabeji pumping station was cut off as result of back to back power breakdowns on the part of KE network, early Monday morning. "The abrupt electricity failure damaged a 72-diameter water line, and leakages to a valve due to intense reverse flow of water," an official said.
The first power breakdown was observed at around 4:25am and lasted for an hour. The 2nd power outage was witnessed at around 7:25am that lasted for a half an hour. "The city is likely to face water shortage for the next couple of days, as the KW&SB hardly managed to supply around 92 million gallons of water to the metropolis till evening," he said. The city receives around 480 million of gallons from Dhabeji pumping stations on a daily basis.
On Friday, similar power outage occurred as KE grid station reportedly caught fire, resulting in suspension of around 345 million gallons of water to Karachi from Dhabeji for 13 hours. Some six water hydrants reportedly remained suspended after the incident, worsening water crises to nearly 55 percent area of the metropolis, amid heat waves.
Meanwhile, K-Electric spokesman said the outage at Dhabeji was restored swiftly and the power utility's maintenance and repair teams were mobilised for this. KE continues to provide uninterrupted power supply to all Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KW&SB) strategic locations, including the pumping stations at Dhabeji, Gharo and Pipri. He said KW&SB major water pumping stations are exempted from load-shedding in the greater interest of the people of Karachi. Over the years, the power utility has also invested significantly to provide primary as well as backup feeder facility available for Dhabeji pumping station. This also includes addition/up gradation of Power Transformers at Dhabeji, Gharo, KDA (NEK) & RECP (Pipri) grid stations.
In addition to ensuring seamless power supply to all strategic installations of KW&SB, KE also extends all possible technical support and maintains close coordination with KW&SB teams round the clock. The power utility has also deputed a dedicated technical team for priority resolution of any technical issues at KW&SB strategic facilities and KE teams also periodically conduct surveys at Dhabeji and other strategic installations of KW&SB to ensure KE operations remain seamless. The Managing Director KW&SB Engineer Asadullah Khan in a statement has requested the masses to use water carefully as the board was running short of water after the power outages. Worst affected areas are included Malir, Landhi, Korangi, Shah Faisal Colony, North Karachi etc.
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