KARACHI: Water Resources Minister Syed Khursheed Shah on Wednesday assured the Sindh government that the federal government was making efforts to complete the long-awaited Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme, commonly known as K-IV, by March 2024.

At a meeting with Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, the federal minister, however, said that there were still some issues regarding the availability of land and right of way (RoW) for the project along with some litigation.

The chief minister directed the chief secretary to get all the issues of land and court cases cleared so that the work on the project could be accelerated.

Earlier, the authorities had claimed that the K-IV would be completed by the end of 2023, but later the deadline was extended to March 2024 as the project had suffered some serious issues.

The K-IV Phase-I, 260 million gallons per day (MGD), is being constructed in Districts Malir and Thatta with the objective to provide a dependable and sustainable water transmission system from its more than 100 kilometres away source of Keenjhar Lake to three reservoirs around the city to feed water supply and distribution network in the city.

Khursheed Shah stresses completion of long-delayed water project by March 2024

Construction work on Phase One 260mgd surplus water supply project was to begin in 2016, and reach completion by 2018 at the cost of Rs25.5bn, which had to be paid equally by the federal and Sindh governments. However, construction work on the project was stopped in 2018 and now the cost of the project is stated to have increased up to 200 billion.

As per Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) decision, the executing agency of the project has been changed from KWSB to Wapda.

The conveyance system of K-IV project (Phase-I) along with the power component will now be carried out by Wapda whereas augmentation project will be carried out by the Sindh government through World Bank funded project, KWSSIP.

The site offices along with equipment and relevant records have been handed over to Wapda and physical handing over of complete RoW of 121.9km has also been done.

On Wednesday, the chief minister and the federal minister along with their respective teams in their meeting agreed to settle all the outstanding issues, including K-IV, RBOD-I & III, and Hub Canal projects amicably.

The meeting was also attended by Wapda chairman retired Lt Gen Sajjad Ghani and Water Resources Secretary Hassan Nasir Jami through video link.

The chief minister said that the project would enable the water supply system to meet requirements for public, commercial, and industrial activities. “It supports economic activities and poverty alleviation by ensuring the required water supplies for existing and future industries in Karachi,” he said adding that the project had already been late, therefore it should be expedited.

Federal Minister Khursheed Shah said that his team had told him that there were issues of land availability/RoW along with some court cases.

The meeting participants were informed that the tender for different components of the K-IV had been awarded and work was about the start.

The chief minister urged Wapda authorities to expedite work on K-IV so that it could be completed by 2024.

Khursheed Shah pointed out that there were some liabilities of over Rs1bn on account of the operation and maintenance of the Hub Dam against the provincial government.

The chief minister directed the local government department to reconcile the liabilities and put up the case for payment to Wapda.

RBOD-I & III

The participants were told that the Wapda had completed work on Right Bank Outfall Drain-I & III in June 2020 but the project was to be taken over by the provincial government.

The meeting was told that the balance work of re-modelling/widening of Indus link and construction of structures had been completed.

It was also informed that the balance work of the RBOD Extension Drain had been completed.

The CM said that there were some defects in the project and the current heavy rains and floods had further damaged its structure, therefore, in such a state of affairs the project could not be taken over.

After thorough discussion, it was decided that a joint team of Wapda and the irrigation department would conduct the survey of the RBOD and submit their report for further decision.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2023