KARACHI: A consultative session on the future of local government in Karachi was informed on Wednesday that the federal government was funding Rs162 billion Orange Line Metro Train project in Lahore, but it was not providing funds to implement Rs27 billion K-IV water supply project in Karachi.

The session was organised by Shehri-Citizens for Better Environment, which invited representatives of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and a former union nazim belonging to the Jamaat-i-Islami so that they could share their party’s stance on the future of the local government in Karachi.

However, PPP’s Najme Alam, MQM’s Khalid Ahmed and JI’s Zahid Saeed (who later claimed that he is no longer associated with the religio-political party) failed to impress the audience with regard to the topic, forcing Shehri’s Amber Alibhai, the session’s moderator, to comment that from “their conversation we feel that they don’t have plans”.

The prevailing water crisis in the metropolis, however, dominated the proceedings, as almost every speaker talked about the city’s water problem and presented its solution.

Comparing the cost of two different projects in Lahore and Karachi, the MQM lawmaker informed the audience that the federal government was providing funds for the Rs162bn transport project in Punjab’s capital. But it did not give Rs27 billion to Karachi for the K-IV water supply project, he added.

Najme Alam of the PPP agreed that the water crisis had become a major problem for the people of Karachi. He claimed that he himself had to buy water through private tankers for domestic use.

The Sindh government would very soon initiate the K-IV project though it was not a long-term solution, he said. “Desalination is the only viable and long-term solution to Karachi’s water problems,” he added.

He said that besides the K-IV project, the Sindh government was working on a plan to provide 65 million gallons of water a day to Karachi from the River Indus. The project would take two or three years to complete, he said.

About the overstaffed Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, he said thousands of people recruited as kundimen no longer performed.

Mr Alam, a former union nazim from Clifton, said the provincial government would remove all encroachment from the city.

Speaking on the occasion, Zahid Saeed, who remained nazim of a Jamshed Town union council for eight years, said that the overstaffing in the KWSB and power loadshedding at pumping stations was the main cause of the water crisis. He said the KWSB was not paying electricity bill of the K-Electric which in return carried out loadshedding at the pumping stations.

He said there was no water shortage at the tail-end, as around 25mgd to 30mgd water had been released into the sea just because the pumping stations lacked capacity to release water into the decades-old conduits.

He said that around 25 per cent of the water supplied was being seeped through soil due to rusty pipelines. He agreed that the K-IV was a very important project but said it would be needed after a few years.

As the criticism regarding recruitment was somehow directed at the MQM, Mr Ahmed responded that his party was the opinion that whoever not working in the utility should be fired immediately.

He said that the share of Karachi in the overall collection of taxes of the Sindh government was 92 per cent, yet it was being deprived of funds.

Urban planner Farhan Anwar, who gave a presentation on the framework for viable local governance in Karachi, observed that Punjab was 25 years ahead of Sindh as there was a sense of belonging and ownership.

Published in Dawn, May 21th, 2015

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