KARACHI A major water crisis looming over the city following a Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) threat to suspend the power supply to vital installations of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) was averted on Tuesday when a meeting of water board officials was convened at the Governor's House to discuss the issue in detail.
The meeting, chaired by the governor's principal secretary, Mumtaz-ur-Rehman, was told by the water board managing director, Qutub Shaikh, that an amount of Rs50 million would be paid to the KESC on October 1 and a decision concerning the mode of payment for the remaining outstanding electricity dues would be taken after consultation with City Nazim Mustafa Kamal on Saturday.
The KESC deferred its decision to suspend the power supply to the KWSB Dhabeji pumping station for six hours when the decisions taken at the Governor's House were communicated to the officials of the power utility.
The meeting was attended by KWSB deputy managing director (revenue and resource generation) Misbahuddin Fareed, chief engineer (bulk water supply) Najm-e-Alam Siddiqui and other officials.
KWSB officials told Dawn that another meeting would be held on Saturday in which the city nazim would be present and would discuss the issue in detail.
KESC postpones decision
After the meeting at the Governor's House on Tuesday, the KESC postponed its decision to suspend the power supply to the KWSB and gave the water board until Friday to settle the issue of unpaid bills, our reporter Shamim-ur-Rahman adds.
We did not curtail the power of the KWSB last night and we are still trying to reach some conclusive agreement on the matter, said a KESC spokesperson when asked about the status of the financial dispute with the water board.
She said that the KESC had set a meeting with the water board for Friday and the curtailment was being postponed until then.
She said that the decision would also give some more time to the KWSB to arrange funds.
The decision averted a major water crisis in the city on Tuesday.
The metropolis would have suffered a shortage of 100mgd of water if the power suspension of up to six hours had been carried out to recover Rs8.2billion dues from the water board.
The KESC softened its stance after the meeting held at the Governor's House.
Earlier, higher authorities of the government had expressed concern over the possible outcome of the proposed decision to suspend the electricity supply and the ongoing row between KESC and the water board over the unsettled debt issue.
Sources told Dawn that KESC and KWSB officials were called at the Governor's House to discuss the issue.
Since the city nazim and the chief executive officer of the KESC are abroad, it was decided to wait until their return for sorting out the dispute.
The sources said that the KWSB had indicated their readiness to pay back the dues.
It may be pointed out that Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad had recently constituted a bipartisan watchdog committee to oversee KESC affairs, particularly the load-shedding and other power crisis matters.
Meanwhile, despite a denial from the Defence Housing Authority, the KESC again claimed that the DHA did owe it Rs17 million and that it would disconnect their other electricity connections as well if the dues were not cleared in time.
The KESC provided names of the disconnected links of the DHA.
However, the DHA denied any such thing, maintaining that the dispute was between the DCL and the KESC over dues on the DHA-Cogen power project.
Outages persist
Meanwhile, power outages continued on Tuesday. During the day the power utility carried out at least three major power shutdowns.
The utility was said to be constrained to shed about 250 megawatts while the demand was for 2,161 megawatts.
The KESC spokesperson, however, claimed that the shortage was of 168 megawatts, despite it getting 620 megawatts from the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).
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