KARACHI, Jan 1: At a time when more than 370 million gallons of untreated sewage of the city is being disposed of into the sea, the proposed sewage treatment plant (STP-IV), a major component of the KWSB’s much-trumpeted Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan (SIII), and three other vital projects – two desalination plants and a combined effluent recycling plant – are now in the doldrums as the land reserved for them has either been leased to private parties or has been encroached upon by the land mafia.

Already, the water utility’s Mehmoodabad sewage treatment plant (STP-II), which has been out of order for more than three months, is lying idle for unexplained reasons, meaning that the city’s two remaining treatment plants, located at Site and Mauripur, are now treating only 50 million gallons daily sewage out of the total 430mgd sewage currently generated in the city.

Experts in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board estimate that as 70 per cent of water turns into sewage, the city, which is currently getting 630mgd of water from the Indus and Hub dam sources, is producing around 430mgd sewage.

Sources in the KWSB told Dawn that in the wake of the shrinking treatment capacity of both the Site and Mauripur sewage treatments plants and also because of Mehmoodabad’s sewage treatment plant, which has been inoperative since early October 2008, the water utility was treating only 60mgd of sewage while the remaining 370mgd untreated sewage was being dumped into the sea, creating unhygienic and stinking atmosphere along the city’s coastal areas and beaches, besides harming marine life and disturbing the ecosystem.

Both STP-I and STP-III, set up in 1959 and 1998, respectively, were currently treating only 60mgd of sewage against their total designed capacity of 105mgd. STP-II which was installed in 1959, before becoming idle in early October, was treating only 20mgd against its designed capacity of 46mgd, the sources added.

Divulging the details of the Rs8 billion Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan, commonly known as S-III, sources said the proposed plan, which aimed at treating the all of the sewage being produced in the city before its disposal into the sea, had not been approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council, but the federal government had also released the amount required for its consultancy.

“Under the S-III plan, a new sewage treatment plant (STP-IV) having a capacity of treating 200mgd of sewage is to be built on land reserved for it in Korangi, near Pakistan Refinery, the capacity of the existing three STPs is to be enhanced, trunk sewers are to be laid and some interceptors are to be installed on both sides of the Lyari and Malir rivers,” the sources said. They added that though the KWSB would face no difficulties in increasing the capacity of both the Site and Mauripur STPs, the task of setting up S-III’s major component, STP-IV, has become a mystery as the land where four vital projects, including the two desalination plants, each of 25mgd, and combined effluent recycling plants are to be built has been given to private parties by the Sindh government on a 30-year lease basis.

Of the total 465 acres reserved for the four vital projects of the city, 365 acres have been granted to private parties, leaving only 100 acres with the KWSB, KWSB officials admitted.

However, some insiders confided to Dawn that more than 40 per cent of the total 100 acres of land now available with the KWSB was disputed.

They also pointed out that 40 acres of the land belonging to Mehmoodabad’s STP-III had recently been earmarked for the A-Category residents of Lines Area who would soon be shifted there to pave the way for completing the remaining portion of Preedy Street, which is part of Corridor-III.

They said the city government’s works and services department and the KWSB were currently busy in undertaking development works and in laying water and sewerage lines on the land so that the process of shifting the people affected by Preedy Street might not be delayed.