The reverse osmosis (RO) plants installed by the former Pakistan People's Party's (PPP) provincial government in the city at a cost of Rs4 billions have become dysfunctional due to lack of interest from the provincial government in running the plants, adding to the water woes of the citizens.
The RO plants, meant to supply safe and clean drinking water to the residents of the respective areas, are rusting, since the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) and Sindh government have lost interest in running the multi billion water desalination project.
"The plants installed in Keamari and Lyari are dysfunctional, adding to the water crisis in both the areas," sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday. Some 13 RO plants in both areas were set up last year, which the KWSB is responsible to run to supply clean and safe drinking water to the residents, could not produce a single gallon till date, they said.
The KWSB has already warned the consumers of an acute shortage of water in the city, as water level in Hub Dam has reached dead level.
Six RO plants in Lyari were installed at a cost of Rs 2.036 billion in Playground area, Nawabad Lyari, Ahmed Shah Bukhari Road, Chakiwara Road and Izzat Shah area. Seven RO plants in Keamari town, costing Rs 2.48, have been installed near Nasir Hotel, Maripur bus stop, Mawach Goth, Machar Colony and other areas.
The sources said that Reverse Osmosis plants (water desalination plants) was new and specialised technology to turn the brackish water into sweat water, adding that the project was completed with an estimated cost of over Rs4.024 billion.
"Each RO plant has a capacity to filter 0.5 mgd (million gallons per day) to 1mgd water, and the total capacity of all 13 plants is 10 million gallons per day," an official of KWSB told this correspondent.
At present, sources said, some of the plants are being operated through generators for only two to three hours. Sources said that bureaucratic hurdles in operating RO plants have left the citizens to suffer.
"Due to unavailability of electricity connections at the sites, the KWSB is unable to operate these plants," said Imran Asif - Project Director SIII, KWSB.
He said that KWSB had paid Rs 120 million to Karachi Electricity Company (now K-Electric) for electricity connection to the sites. "We had applied for electricity connection nine months ago but KESC is using dilly-dallying tactics in provision of power connection to operate these RO plants," the official said.
He said that RO plants could only be run through high power connections and for the purpose the KESC has to install High Tension (HT) wires at the sites to make the plants operational. "So far, the KESC has not taken any concrete step to provide electricity connections despite receiving Rs 120 million," sources said.
An official source inside KWSB has also termed the RO project a 'complete loss of money'. He said that Sindh government could have used the Rs 4 billion on water supplies infrastructure to curtail the theft of water through illegal hydrants.
"If the government had utilised Rs 4 billion for improvement in infrastructure, the water utility could have add some 65mgd in its system," he said.
According to a KESC spokesperson, the power utility has completed work on many sites. He said that KESC has installed high tensions supply line to make the plants operational.