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OCTOBER
2009
ISSUES:
KWSB
initiates SFC-III project
500MGD
to be treated through four new plants, upgrading old ones
The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has initiated work on the
S-III Project to enable the utility to treat 500 million gallon per day
(MGD) sewege of the metropolis, The News has learnt.
Sources revealed to The News that under the project, four new treatment
plants would be constructed, while the existing infrastructure would
also be upgraded. The four new sewerage treatment plants would
be constructed at a combined cost of Rs13.49 billion. Three of these
plants would have a 50 MGD capacity each, while another plant would be
able to treat 80 MGD. Sources said that these plants would be
established at different locations in the city, and it would take three
years to complete the project.
Sources said that the KWSB has allocated four new sites to establish the
new treatment plants (TPs) – in Sohrab Goth (to handle sewerage of
North Karachi), Shah Faisal and at Mai Kolachi. Each of these
plants would have a capacity of 50 MGD. Another TP would be constructed
in Korangi, and would have a have a capacity of 80 MGD. The construction
of these new TPs would enable an additional 230 MGD sewage to be
treated.
The project would also enhance the capacity of the existing sewerage
treatments plants in the city, sources said. At present, there are three
KWSB treatment plants (TP); in Shershah, Mehmoodabad and Mauripur. The
designed capacity of TP-I (Shershah) is 51 MGD, which would be enhanced
by 25 MGD under S-III to enhance its total capacity to 76 MGD. The
present designed capacity of TP-II (Mehmoodabad) is 46 MGD, which would
be increased by 14 MGD to accomplish a total capacity of 60 MGD at this
plant. Similarly, the capacity of TP-III (Mauripur) is 54 MGD, which
would be enhanced by 80 MGD to reach a total capacity of 134 MGD.
After the upgrading process is completed, the combined capacity of the
existing treatment plants would reach 270 MGD.
Sources told The News that a total of 472 MGD sewerage is currently
produced in the city. Of this volume, only 60 MGD sewerage is treated
through existing plants, while the rest of the 412 MGD untreated sewage
is disposed into the sea. Sources at the KPT informed The News that
sewerage of the city is handled through different drains. Liyari River
handles 163 MGD sewerage, Solder Bazar Nullah handles 27.87 MGD, Pitcher
Nullah handles 6.2 MGD and the Nehr-e-Khiyam handles 16 MGD sewerage.
Likewise, Mehmoodabad’s drain handles 34 MGD sewerage and Malir
River handles 64 MGD sewerage. There are numerous other drains who
handle different quantity of sewerage of the city which is finally
dropped into the sea and only a minor share of this huge sewerage is
presently treated.
Sources said that the funding sharing formula for S-III was decided at a
meeting held on May 27-28 which was chaired by President Asif Ali
Zardari. The Federal government and the Sindh government would
both provide 33 per cent of the funds, while the Karachi Port
Trust (KPT) would account for another 33 per cent.
The authorities concerned have also attached some objectives which would
be achieved after the project is completed. These include cleaning
beaches, increasing the export of fish, increase tourism and
improvestorm water drainage. The project would also generate direct and
indirect employment.
(By
Qadeer Tanoli, The News-13, 19/10/2009)
Power
plants at KWSB pumping stations sought
The establishment of three gas-based power-generation plants at Karachi
Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) pumping stations is being
considered by the Water Board, The News has learnt.
The KWSB has already allowed the establishment of a 35-Megawatt
(MW) power generation plant at the Dhabeji Pumping
Station on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BoT) basis. Sources in the
KWSB said that the duration for this BoT would be 25 years.
A source, requesting anonymity, further said that the KWSB was
considering setting up a power generation unit each at the
North-East Pumping Station (near new Sabzi Mandi) and the
Pipri Pumping Station and at the Hub Pumping Station. He added, however,
that measures to establish these three power generation units are at the
very initial stages.
Work on the power generation plant at the Dhabeji Pumping Station is
getting delayed due to some internal matters of the company which has
been assigned the job to construct the plant.
The source said that the demand of electricity at the Dhabeji Pumping
Station is 28MW. After the completion of the plant, an extra 7MW may be
sold to the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC). He
said that after the completion of the plant, it will be able to provide
electricity round-the-clock to the pumping station without any delay.
The KWSB has a total of five pumping stations — one each at Dhabeji,
Gharo, Pipri, North-East Station and Dumloti. Sources said that
the electricity charges of these plants would be lesser than
the prevailing charges of the KESC. It is pertinent to mention here that
KWSB’s total supply of water is 650 million gallons per day (MGD). Out
of 650MGD, the organization gets 550MGD from the Indus
River and 100MGD from the Hub Dam. The KWSB is facing a shortfall
of 150MGD in the present circumstances. This shortfall will be met
through some of the Water Board’s new projects.
The KWSB has been facing severe problems in paying its monthly dues and
other arrears to the KESC. The News learnt that the KWSB could pay Rs50
million instead of the Rs220 million which it was supposed to pay the
KESC per month.
A KWSB official, who declined to be named, informed The News that the
KWSB is working on a fast track to make its recovery status better. He
said that the current recovery of the organization is around Rs350
million per month and it trying to achieve the target of Rs500 million
per month.
He further said that the federal government owed the KWSB Rs6 billion
and the Sindh government had to pay Rs3 billion to the Water
Board as outstanding dues.
The KWSB has also stopped free delivery of water tankers to
cover financial losses, he said, and expressed hope that the payment of
dues to the KESC would reach Rs100 million per month within two to three
months.
(By
Qadeer Tanoli, The News-13, 12/10/2009)
Foreign
funding stopped as KWSB fails to pay back Rs42bn
The
Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has failed to pay back its
outstanding liabilities of Rs42 billion to international donor
agencies, which in turn has resulted in donor agencies excusing
themselves from pledging further funding for pipelined projects of
the water board, The News has learnt.
Due to a bad credit history, sources explained, the KWSB has not been
able to procure funding for Sewerage (S)-3 and K-4 projects, despite
having fulfilled all formalities.
Sources told The News that some years ago, the KWSB had procured loans
from differentinternational donor agencies for the purpose of
completing a number of its projects. The World Bank(WB), Asian
Development Bank (ADB) and Japan Bank for International
Cooperation (JBIC) all lent money to the KWSB at different times,
but the water board was unable to pay back both the debt and the
mark-up.
The government of Pakistan, which had given the “sovereign
guarantee” to obtain loans for some projects of KWSB, is now left to
pay the dues to the donor agencies, sources said. The current
situation is such that even the federal government is reluctant to
provide sovereign guarantee to donor agencies for the pipelined projects
of KWSB.
The ADB had provided funding to the tune of Rs11-12 billion for the S-2
Project. According to the understanding, the KWSB was bound to three per
cent mark-up per annum in addition to paying the principal amount in
installments.
Work on S-2 started in 1993, and the project was mainly focusing on
upgrading the Clifton SeweragePumping Station and construction of
Mauripur Sewerage Treatment Plant. The upgrading and renovation of
the sewerage treatment plants in Shershah and Mehmoodabad as
well as laying down an interceptor (buried sewerage pipeline) from Gulshan-e-Iqbal to
Mauripur Treatment Plant were also components of the project.
The WB sanctioned a loan to KWSB up to the tune of Rs12 billion for K-2
Project, which was aiming at establishing two pumping
stations - one at Dhabiji and the other in the north east of
Karachi – both of which had a capacity of 100 Million gallon
per day (MGD) each. The project included setting up a 100 MGD filter
plant in the north east of Karachi, as well as the construction of a new
600 cusec canal from Gujo to Dhabiji and the strengthening of an
existing canal of that time. The water board was liable to pay five per
cent mark-up on the loan to the WB, and work on this project started in
1991. A few years ago, both projects were materialised successfully.
The JBIC had provided about Rs7 billion for the construction of a
pumping station of 100 MGD at Hub and an 80 MGD water filter
plant at the same site, as well as the construction of 50 MGD water
treatment plant at Pipri. Work on the project started in 1999, and
was completed in 2005. As per the agreement, the ratio of mark-up on the
JBIC loan was three per cent.
Highlighting the causes of the failure of the KWSB to payback its
liabilities, sources claimed that the organisation is facing “serious
issues of malpractices” within its network. They said that the KWSB
supplies water to bulk and domestic consumers, including
industries.
Sources that while the KWSB revenue for its services should have been
about Rs12 billion per annum, its recovery stands between Rs2.5 billion
to Rs3 billion per annum. It is worth mentioning to note that KWSB
supply 650 MGD water to all type of consumers of the city.
They said that the organisation, thus far, has been unsuccessful in
getting 100 per cent recovery from its consumers despite disconnecting
illegal connections. This move, they maintained, has widened the gap
between the potential target and the original recovery of the
organisation.
(By
Qadeer Tanoli, The News-13, 06/10/2009)
Water
conservation
RAJA Zulqarnain Khan’s call for water conservation needs to
be echoed across the land. Speaking inMuzaffarabad on Tuesday,
the Azad Jammu and Kashmir president urged people to store
rainwater and protect existing sources of water in AJK. He
lamented that roughly half the population of AJK still did not have
access to potable water, adding that water sources have all
but dried up in some areas. In the bigger picture, the same concerns
apply to the four provinces of Pakistan, where per capita water
supply fell by nearly 80 per cent between 1951 and 2005. Agriculture has
been hit hard by shortages while taps in towns and cities sometimes
remain dry for days on end. In the rural areas, many remain dependent on
highly polluted well water. Arsenic poisoning from
contaminated well water is not unknown in this country
and waterborne diseases are rife. And the acute problems we
are facing are expected to become even more severe in the years to come.
According to the World Bank, Pakis- tan “is currently
experiencing water stress and will soon face outright water
scarcity”. Some factors such as climate change may be
beyond our control, though that doesn’t mean we should resign
ourselves to our fate. Ways and means need to be devised to minimise the
damage wrought by global warmingand erratic weather. Our biggest
self-created problems are profligacy, a burgeoning population and the
absence of an integrated water management policy. Simply put,
water is wasted on a staggering scale in Pakistan. We must adopt more
efficient farming techniques — land-levelling alone can result in
significant savings — line watercourses to prevent seepage, and take
steps to halt the contamination of streams and natural aquifers. Water
theft should be checked and leaking pipelines repaired. Then there is
the urgent need, throughout the country, to build relatively low-cost
reservoirs that can trap rain and floodwater. There is no reason why
this cannot be done. Such schemes, as opposed to grandiose mega
projects, tend to attract donor funding and there should be no political
fallout either. Given honesty of purpose, a lot can be achieved in a
short time.
(Daily
Dawn, 08/10/2009)
Two
children perish in shanty blaze
Two minor children were burnt alive when a fire broke out in a compound
housing some shanties near Al-Asif Square, Sohrab Goth in the limits of
Sachal police station on Thursday noon.
According to eye witnesses and city’s fire
brigade officials, the fire was so fierce that within no time, it
engulfed majority of the shanties in a 600-yard plot and by the time
firemen and rescuers reached the spot, it had done maximum damage
including claiming the lives of two and reducing 12 out of 14 shanties
to ashes, eyewitnesses said.
In addition to the deaths, two women also sustained minor burnt
injuries.
Charred bodies of both the minor children were initially sent to
the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities and then
shifted to the Edhi morgue by the rescuers.
“My daughter Kaka, who was two and half year old and my grandson,
Badal, who was four-year old were killed in the fire when we were at our
workplaces and women were also away from their makeshift homes,” Punnu,
the aggrieved father and grandfather of the children told The News.
During a visit to the place, it was learnt that the shanties had been
established on a 600-yard vacant plot, which was owned by one, Haji
Ishque, who had allowed gypsies from interior Sindh to live there.
There were some 14 shanties in the plot in Bhakkar Goth, out of which 12
were completely reduced to ashes.
“The fire erupted around 1:30 pm when most of the men had gone on
work. There were no women in the shanties as they too work as cleaning
ladies and only children were present there,” said Punnu, a pushcart
vendor, who hailed from Tando Muhammad Khan district. He said
that he was selling bananas nearby when the fire erupted.
“Other persons have only suffered material losses but I have lost
everything. Now, we people don’t know where to live,” he added.
Punnu said that he had decided to take the bodies to his ancestral
place. “All I am worried about is how to arrange a vehicle to take the
bodies and my family members to my ancestral place,” he added.
Other persons, whose shanties were reduced to ashes, said that they had
also decided to move back to their ancestral place as they were left
with nothing. These persons, however, ruled out any possibility of
sabotage, saying it was an accident.
“We are living here for years and the plot owner has never asked us to
leave. This fire had occurred accidentally and we don’t blame anyone
for the loss,” they added.
Station Fire Officer of the Gulistan-e-Mustafa Fire Station, Sohrab
Goth, Mubin Ahmed, said that he immediately sent three fire tenders to
extinguish the fire and it was brought under control soon the fire
tenders reached there.
“However, it was a fierce fire and owing to straw huts, it had reduced
everything to ashes before we could reach into compound,” the fire
brigade official said.
He said that the firefighters found the bodies while putting off the
fire and added that both the children had died by the time they were
spotted.
The fire brigade official criticized the rescuers of different
service organisations, saying they not only hindered the efforts of the
firemen, who were extinguishing the blaze, but also fought each other
over the bodies just to score numbers.
(By
M Waqar Bhatti, The News-13, 09/10/2009)
Stay
on commercialisation of roads extended
A division
bench of the Sindh High Court extended on
Saturday a stay order it had issued earlier against the
commercialisation of roads and streets by the Karachi city
government. The bench comprising Chief Justice Sarmad
Jalal Osmany and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah fixed Oct 5 for the
hearing of the constitutional petition filed by Majid Jamal and Nighat
Jamal, residents of the Bahadur Yar Jang Cooperative Housing
Society, who challenged the construction of a 13-storey commercial plaza
on a 1000-square-yard plot (112) on Alamgir Road declared commercial by
the city government.
The petitioners, represented by Advocate Khwaja Shamsul Hasan, made the
secretary housing and town planning, the city government, the Karachi
Building Control Authority, the Sindh Environmental Protection
Agency, the Federation of Pakistan, the Karachi Cooperative
Housing Societies Union Ltd., the Bahadur Yar
Jung Cooperative Housing Society Ltd, Mrs. Yousra A.S. Shamsi,,
owner of the plot No 111 and the Seven Seas Construction
respondents. They submitted that the city council had adopted a
resolution in 2005 under which the CDGK now commercialised
Khayaban-e-Saadi, Khayaban-e-Roomi, Alamgir, Nishtar and other roads in
city.
The petitioners stated that the locality was purely a residential area
and all the leases in that particular area were granted strictly for
residential purposes only and in case of violation of
the restrictive covenants that are contained in the lease, the
lease was liable to be cancelled/revoked as specifically provided in
each and every lease deed. They submitted that being the owner of
the aforesaid residential house the petitioners as well as many other
neighbouring residents were lawfully entitled to certain easement rights
including but not limited to privacy, purdah, right of support, fresh
air and proper passage in the streets.
The petitioners stated that the owner of the plot started excavation and
digging of land on the adjoining plot in Oct 2008 and the builder
established its site office on the said plot with the intentions to
raise a multi-storey commercial building. They said that when the
representatives of the petitioners (as the petitioners were abroad at
that time) and other neighbours asked them to show the approved
construction plan, the persons available at the site avoided and refused
to provide the same.“The petitioners on their return
to Pakistan in the month of June 2009 made enquiries from the
respondents No.3,4,5 & 6 and it came to light that the respondents
No.9 & 10, through illegal, fraudulent and corrupt means, have
obtained conversion of the use of the aforesaid plot No.111 into
commercial, through city council resolution No.659 dated
27.6.2005, without following the proper law or inviting objections from
the residents of the area in complete defiance of Sindh Building Control
Ordinance, 1979, which is provincial statute, read with Karachi
Buildings & Town Planning Regulations, 2002, 2004 and 2006, which is
the proper law which cannot be changed by the city council by way of
mere resolution and that too in respect of the land owned/leased by
the Federation of Pakistan, i.e., Respondent No.6.”
“That the petitioner No.1 is suffering from macular degeneration of
the wet type and had remained under treatment of Dr. David T. Wong and
Dr. Yaser Khan of Toronto, Canada and had gone to Canada for further
check-up/treatment and to visit children in Canada along with her
husband and the ground floor of the house was locked, however, the
respondents No.9 & 10 took advantage of the absence and speeded up
the construction. It was in May 2009 that the daughter of the
petitioners visited the house and observed that the plants, decorative
items and lawn have been destroyed by the debris of the wall constructed
on the south side of the petitioners’ house and informed the
petitioners about the situation, where after the petitioners had to
return in emergency leaving the treatment and arrived in Karachi on 15th
June, 2009.”
The petitioners prayed to the court to declare that the city
council resolution No.659 dated May 27, 2005, by which the
respondent No.2 and 3 reportedly gave permission for the conversion of
use of the plot No111, Block No 3, Bahadurabad, Karachi, as
contained in letter of respondent No.3 dated July 5, 2007, is patently
illegal, mala fide, based on dishonesty and fraud, besides the entire
conversion is without any proper jurisdiction and authority, as well as
in gross violation of the Karachi Town Planning and Building
Regulations, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. The petitioner’s
counsel contended that the CDGK was not authorised to commercialise
roads in front of houses purely meant for residential purpose, as this
would create environmental pollution, traffic jams, others. The
CDGK also failed to invite objections from residents of these areas and
prayed to suspend implementation on the city council’s
resolution.
Advocate Manzoor Ahmed appeared for the CDGK and submitted that the city
government commercialised roads in accordance with the law. Advocate
Sardar Shahbaz Khosa represented the respondent builder, M/s City Tower.
(By
Tahir Siddiqui, Dawn-13, 04/10/2009)
Flawed
plan’ likely to delay Lyari Expressway
The
under-construction Lyari Expressway may not be completed by the new
deadline of February 2010 because of faulty planning and
mismanagement.
Sources here said that at a recent meeting of the project’s major
stakeholders, doubts were expressed about timely completion of the
project.
The meeting was attended by officials of the National Highway
Authority, Frontier WorksOrganisation, consultant engineering firm,
Sindh government and the city district administration.
The meeting was informed that the cost of the project was increasing
with every passing day.
Initially the project was estimated to cost Rs4.892 billion.
Work started in May 2002 and the expressway was to be completed in 30
months.
A revised PC-I of Rs5.081 billion was approved by the Executive
Committee of the National Economic Council in April 2003.
Under another revision, the cost was put at Rs11.7 billion.
A similar upward revision was made in the cost of rehabilitation of the
people affected by the project.
An amount of Rs2.7 billion was allocated under the original PC-I for the
rehabilitation of over 30,000 affected families. The amount was later
raised to Rs4.7 billion and now the cost has shot up to Rs8.7
billion.
According to the record, around 6,000 families are yet to be
settled.
The meeting held in Karachi was informed that 86 per cent of
the construction area had been cleared and 14 per cent was still under
occupation.
Clearing the area is responsibility of the provincial government and the
city authorities.
The sources said the FWO would have signed the contract only when every
inch of the land had been cleared and approved by the NHA.
NHA officials said that the task of clearing the land and removing
encroachments was assigned to the Sindh government and city
authorities, but because of political and social pressures and
administrative problems it could not be completed on time.
The meeting was informed that under the original PC-I the government of
Sindh had agreed to meet 50 per cent of the cost. But so far it has not
released a single penny.
NHA officials said that no work had been done on seven kilometres of the
project because the city government has cleared only two km and the
remaining five km was still under occupation.
It may be mentioned that the NHA is paying Rs12 million a month to the
FWO for consultancy and supervision, but construction work can be
undertaken only after the clearance of the area.
It was suggested at the meeting that the five km portion, which is still
under occupation, should be redesigned. But NHA officials said the
provincial government would not allow any change in the design.
The expressway which has four interchanges, 16 overhead bridges and 83
culverts was conceived to provide congestion-free traffic from the port
to the Superhighway at Sohrab Goth, reducing the travel time
between the two points by 30 minutes.
(Daily
Dawn, 02/10/2009)
KESC’s
dilemma
THE KESC’s ongoing drive to recover Rs13bn in outstanding dues has
reached sensitive areas. Over 1,200 mosques in Karachi have
been served notice to pay up their dues — in many cases they have been
defaulting for two years. Under the rules, the KESC can
disconnect power supply to a consumer after serving it with a
disconnection notice. Hence the mosques should have no reason to
complain if they are left without electricity. It is inconceivable that
an institution that is looked upon as a role model when it comes to
performing social responsibilities should be going against
this perception by not paying its utility bills. However, the KESC needs
to be grilled over its performance and recovery strategy. Why has it
allowed dues from defaulting customers to accumulate for such long
periods? The action now being contemplated should have been taken much
earlier. Is the recovery drive aimed at all defaulters or is the KESC
being selective? It is quite evident that the KESC’s billing
department has been tardy and not very efficient for reasons best known
to its bosses.
The recovery drive has other serious implications. We know that the
loadshedding inflicted on Karachiites is to a large degree on account of
the utility’s financial inability to pay the IPPs for the power that
could supplement the electricity company’s generation shortfall.
Loadshedding irritates consumers many of whom refuse to pay as a gesture
of retribution. Here again the KESC is at fault. A major source of the
problem lies in the corruption and ineptitude that mark its working.
Line losses to the tune of 34 per cent of its transmission eat into its
resources. Why have they not been attended to especially when the
company received a large amount for renovation, maintenance and repairs
at the time of its privatisation?
(Daily
Dawn, 02/10/2009)
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