KARACHI: The World Bank (WB) has said that the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) needs to operate like a commercial organisation without any political influence or intervention to make it efficient and self-sufficient financially, it emerged on Wednesday.

Informed sources told Dawn that a WB high-power delegation led by Water Global Director Saroj Kumar Jha and Country Director Najy Binhassine called on Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and discussed reforms in the KWSC and improvement of irrigation system in the province.

A press statement issued from the CM House said that Mr Jha urged that the KWSC needed to operate like a commercial organisation, saying that water was more crucial than electricity. “However, people tend to overlook its importance because its rates are lower than electricity, and they don’t take the payment of its bill seriously”, he was quoted as saying.

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According to the statement, it was also pointed out by the WB official that when the recoveries of the K-Electric were better why the water utility could not make its recoveries to meet its all expenditures. “The water board is financially so weak that it has to depend on the provincial government every month to pay its electricity bill,” he added.

The chief minister told the WB team that the country was facing severe water scarcity, and the situation was even worse in Sindh. “Therefore, it is crucial to promote efficient use of water for both domestic and irrigation purposes to ensure sustainable water management,” he said.

They said that the WB team emphasised the need to setting commercial targets along with efficiency targets for financial stability of the water utility that generates funds of only half of its Rs30 billion budget.

The sources said that the WB urged for bringing the city’s industrial zones in to the water utility’s metering system as over 70 per cent of the total revenue was generated from the industries. They said that the water utility was also asked to properly and efficiently regulate use of sub-soil water and improve its domestic consumers’ billing system to overcome its financial woes.

KWSC Chief Executive Officer Syed Salahuddin told Dawn that the water utility had launched a project of installing 5,000 meters in the city’s industrial zones. “As many as 15,000 meters are going to be installed in the first phase,” he said, adding that efforts were also on to improve recovery of water dues from the retail consumers.

He said that recovery rate of the domestic consumers was around 30 to 40 per cent and it would be gradually increased to 50 per cent in the coming months.

Murad said that Karachi was a big city, and the provincial government was working hard to meet its water requirement. “In consultation with the World Bank, we have brought reforms in the water board and have involved the private sector to make it more efficient,” he said.

The mayor, who is also chairman of the water utility, said that since the introduction of reforms in KW&SC the recoveries had started increasing.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2024