Supreme Court Orders Formation of Bodies to Tackle Illegal Water Hydrants

Karachi, January 10, 2015 (PPI-OT): President, SITE Association of Industry (SAI), Muhammad Jawed Bilwani, referring to the recent News Reports in the Newspapers of today 10th January, 2015 captioned in the Daily Dawn “SC wants two bodies to look into illegal hydrants issue” and caption in The News “SC orders formation of bodies to tackle illegal hydrants” greatly lauded the Supreme Court decision heaving a sigh of relief stated that in reality the water line K-IV which had been promised has not yet been laid while still the old K-III water line is continuing.

KWSB itself claims that the per capita water demand @ 54 GPCD for population 20 Million is estimated at 1080 MGD while it was a great apathy that the present supply to Karachi from Indus and Hub source is approx 650MGD which is a shortfall of 430 MGD (source: KW and SB – Water Management site).

It can be imagined that such shortfall has been continuing since a long time, therefore this was fulfilled by subsoil water from thousands of tube wells all over Karachi in Residential area, Masajid and Industrial and Other areas.

Moreover, he lamented that 100 MGD of water from Hub Dam had dried up which was another setback. Most unfortunately the SITE Industrial Area which was getting water last 20 years back is today not even been supplied 10% of that water by KWSB. Even 20 years ago the Industries used to get subsoil water due to the fact that KW and SB failed to supply the required quantity of water that time too.

He further said that the actual requirement of SITE Industrial Area is 40 MGD while KW and SB supplied on an average a miserable 2.75 MGD Water approx. As a result of such a poor scenario several industries got subsoil water from their own plots while some from other areas through subsoil tankers or lines spread on the ground. Even the other six industrial areas were compelled to get water in this way.

Some people bored subsoil water, built water hydrants to sell this water while it is an irony that despite all this KW and SB has done absolutely nothing further dilemma is that the long planned K-IV line has still not been installed.

Bilwani stated that as price of diesel went up the subsoil water was being supplied through ground lines to meet the requirement which is actually the duty of KWSB and it is doing nothing. People even bought land to bore subsoil water, build water hydrants and at times even went for boring of subsoil near the Nalas.

It is pertinent to note that water is being supplied through these sources i.e. KW and SB Water Pipelines and KW and SB legal and illegal water hydrants as well as Subsoil water pipeline and Subsoil Water Hydrants. It is a fact that the subsoil water is only for Industrial use and it is not drinkable water.

Whenever the Government directs KW and SB to take action against the illegal hydrants, the KW and SB just demolishes the legal sub-soil water hydrants which directly affect the industries, causing more shortage of water artificially but does not deal with the illegal hydrants as some of KW and SB officials themselves are involved in stealing water from the main pipelines of KW and SB.

Further, he said that there is also involvement of some KW and SB Officials proving the fact that due to this KWSB billing is of just 20% of supply while 80% of supply is not billed and comes under water theft. Is it not another great irony that while all over the world, Scanning Machines are used to find out and trace the leakages in the water pipelines, but here KW and SB does not have such scanning machines and it is another misfortune that the old machines are damaged and that too intentionally by them.

Finally, Bilwani warned that if the situation of the supply of water by the concerned relevant authority – the KW and SB remains in the same miserable condition all the industries, more specially the export oriented industries contributing 50% of the total nation’s export from these areas and which are the best pay masters but still starving for water from KW and SB, will be compelled to close down throwing out 25 to 30 lacs of workers which are employed by them and leading to chaos and disaster.

For more information, contact:
Sohail Shahzad Bhatti
Secretary General
S.I.T.E. Association of Industry
H-16, Textile Avenue, SITE, Karachi
Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-32562883, +92-21-32560705
Fax: +92-21-32560704
E-mail: site@site-association.org
Website: www.site-association.org