KARACHI, Oct 10: Over 300 of the 465 acres reserved for setting up Treatment Plant-IV (TP-IV) in Korangi, adjacent to Pakistan Refinery, has been granted to private parties on a 30-year lease while another huge chunk of it has been encroached upon by the land mafia, putting the Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan, commonly known as S-III, in jeopardy.

Moreover, the fate of two other vital projects – 25MGD desalination plant and 50MGD desalination plants – which were to be set up by two different American firms, also hangs in the balance as these plants were to be set up on the land that is now under encroachment.

Having a capacity of treating 200 million gallons of sewage daily, the proposed TP-IV is a major component of the S-III project which has already been approved by the federal government.

Well-placed sources told Dawn that though the land in Deh Dih Ibrahim Hyderi, near Pakistan Refinery, was allotted to the KWSB in 1992 by the then deputy commissioner of defunct district East for setting up Sewerage Treatment Plant-IV, Combined Effluent Treatment Plant for Landhi and Korangi and two desalination plants, the water utility took the possession of 409 acres the same year and of the remaining 56 acres in the subsequent years and had also raised a boundary wall on the plot at a cost of Rs7million to protect it from land grabbers in 1995.

However, at a time when the S-III project, aimed at increasing the sewage treatment capacity from 150 to 550 MGD by enhancing their designed capacity of the three existing treatment plants (TP-I, TP-II and TP-III) and also by building a new treatment plant (TP-IV) of 200MGD capacity on the land reserved for it near the shore and adjacent to Pakistan Refinery in Korangi, the KWSB had come to know that four of the total 465 acres had been granted on a 30-year lease to H. M. Habib and Asad Habib, 300 acres had been proposed in Deh Dih Korangi Town for allotment to the Sindh Civil Officers Cooperative Housing Society while 136 acres have been heavily encroached upon by land grabbers, making it impossible for the KWSB to set up its TP-IV on the mere 25 acres of land left with the KWSB now. Highlighting the importance of the proposed S-III, sources said the project had already been approved by ECNEC and other related federal government organizations. A fund for its on-going design work had already been released by the federal government which would be delayed until the encroached upon land reserved for TP-IV and also Sewerage Trunk Sewers/Intercentors on both sides of the Malir river was freed from the land mafia.

The proposed TP-IV, which is a major component of S-III, on its construction will provide the facility of treating sewage generated by Shah Faisal Colony, Malir, Bin Qasim, Landhi and Korangi towns as well as the industrial effluent of the Landhi-Korangi industrial areas, the sources said, adding that at present domestic and industrial effluent of these towns and both industrial areas was being discharged into the sea via the Korangi drain/Chakra Goth drain and the Malir river.

The S-III is aimed at enhancing the sewage treatment capacity of the three existing treatment plants which are nowadays treating less than 90MGD of over 400MGD sewage currently being produced in the city which means that over 300MGD untreated sewage was being discharged into various storm-water drains and the Lyari and Malir rivers and finally into the Arabian Sea, polluting the sea and destroying marine life besides disturbing the eco-system.

The sources said the discharge of untreated sewage in such a huge quantity was being done in flagrant violation of the Environmental Protection Agency rules, and it was also depriving the country of the badly needed foreign exchange as the European countries off and on imposed a ban on the import of fish and prawns from Pakistan owing to the prevailing unhygienic conditions in the sea.