President Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday said that a desalination plant with the capacity to treat 1100 to 1400 million gallons of water per day was a viable option to meet the challenge of water scarcity in Karachi. He said to turn the arrangement all the more feasible an efficient tariff mechanism would be further needed. "Huge investment is required with equal care towards revenue generation ensuring that the essential commodity was not only easily available to the citizens but also affordable to them," he said.
Dr Alvi agreed that attention was urgently required to plug the leakages established to be a major cause of water loss and also it's siphoning over the years.
It is pertinent to mention that Karachi with a current population of 22 million is registered to have the highest growth rate, exceeding 3% per year, with its depleting affect on the civic amenities in general.
The president was of the opinion that a pragmatic approach could help address the associated challenges. Federal government, he said was fully conscious of the ground realities and keen to solve them in coordination with all the stakeholders concerned.