KARACHI, April 17: One of the major reasons behind the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s inability to supply sufficient water to its city consumers is its organisational flaws, says a report.

The report, ‘Water supply in Karachi, situation issues, priority issues and solutions’, prepared by Perween Rahman of the Orangi Pilot Project, says that there is a scarcity of technically trained staff and the situation has been compounded by the ban on recruitment in the KWSB since 1994.

It says that sufficient water is available with the KWSB which, if distributed efficiently, can meet the demand of the whole city. However, technically qualified people are needed to be posted, leakages plugged and dues recovered.

It says that a majority of the towns have just four to five technically qualified field staffers -- engineers and diploma holders. Most of the operational work such as valve operation, maintenance and repairs are done by fitters, baildars and coolies, who have learnt work on job. In many localities residents have hired their own valve-men and these and others, about 10 to 15 valve-men per town had been taken on daily wages by the KWSB in 2007.

There are a large number of unplanned official as well as unofficial connections and the use of suction pumps is common, causing low pressure and faulty distribution. Issues like verandas and portions of buildings extending over water lines are found everywhere, which makes maintenance very difficult and at certain times such undertakings are prone to violent reactions from the owners of the premises. The report says that though documentation of the existing system, particularly of the distribution mains, is available with the KWSB, it needs to be updated.

It says that the KWSB has a meagre operational and maintenance budget of about Rs1.2 million per town. Development projects and repair works are undertaken through other funds such as the Tameer-i-Karachi Programme, provincial and city government’s annual development programmes and also through the funds of MNAs, MPAs, UC and town nazims.

The report says that while most of the main line works are undertaken through the KWSB, most secondary and lane level works -- laying pipelines, valve placements and repairs -- are undertaken independently of the KWSB by the city government, town, UC, MNAs, MPAs and residents.

It says that KWSB’s current annual budget (year 2007 – 2008) is Rs5.3 billion and hardly Rs2 billion to 2.5 billion is recovered as the water and sewerage charges while the rest is government subsidy. A total of over Rs18.6 billion remains outstanding against the government as well as other defaulters.

If the staff efficiently plug the leakages and curb water pilferage by illegal hydrants, which in turn feed the tanker mafia, there will be sufficient water available for everybody.

The ban on recruitments for a decade and a half has resulted in the shortage of technically qualified people in the KWSB, as many of them have retired and at present even the top man at the KWSB, Ghulam Arif, who is a non-technical person, has been brought in from outside.

If technically qualified and efficient people with related qualifications are appointed, not only the organizational shortcomings of the KWSB could be overcome, but the citizens of the biggest metropolis of the country will also get sufficient water supply without having to remain hostage to the tanker mafia, which according to the report generates about Rs50 billion annually.