KARACHI: Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said on Sunday that the greater Karachi water supply project, commonly known as K-IV, had been delayed due to frequent irregularities and changes made in its line route to favour some influential persons.

Besides, he said, numerous mistakes were made in the planning of the K-IV project and engineers held the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and the provincial government responsible for these mistakes.

He said in a statement issued here that the Sindh government using dillydallying tactics instead of telling the people as to when the water shortages in Karachi would be over.

Opposition leader says the route of mega water project changed to favour influential persons

He pointed out that Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah promised at the launching of the K-IV project that 265 million gallons daily would be made available in June this year.

“Now the month of June has already passed and the people of Karachi have no hope of getting additional water from the K-IV project in the coming next two to three years as so far no map has been drawn for laying of pipelines in the city,” he said.

He said what type of planning it was that the government had allocated funds for filter plants but no provision had been made for maintenance of the plants as well as for power stations to run and operate the filter plants.

He demanded that the government get power from either Hesco or K-Electric instead of installing its own power plants.

Mr Naqvi further said that a full year had been passed but the work on the K-IV project remained standstill for non-payment of share by the Sindh government. He claimed that the money spent on the project came from the share of the federal government.

The PTI leader said that instead of misguiding the people the Sindh government should bring facts before the people. “The Sindh government ought to tell people when the water scarcity will overcome in the city and when water board’s performance improved.”

Locust attack

Referring to the locust attack on crops in Sindh , Mr Naqvi said that he was quite surprised to read the statement of the chief minister in which he took full credit of measures which were actually taken by the federal government.

The chief minister and agriculture minister had stated that the crops were being destroyed from the locust attack. They held the federal government responsible for not taking appropriate measures to check the locust as this issue came within the purview of the plant protection and food security.

The PTI leader said both of them had either made a false statement in the assembly or making one now.

He said it was the fact that the federal government had carried out a spray in the desert areas, which had resulted in checking the locust attack on time.

He said that he had advised the chief minister on the floor of the house that he should accompany a delegation to Islamabad and informed the federal government and the ministry concerned about the requirement of Sindh. “But if they don’t like to go with us, the Sindh government at least write to the federal government about its requirement but I got no information of any such communication.”

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2019