Funding limitations and poor administrative coordination have delayed project completion
People filling water bottles from a pumping station in Baldia Town due to severe water shortage in the city. PHOTO: ARCHIVE
KARACHI:
Karachi has been trapped in a deepening water crisis for almost twenty years, but the long-awaited K-IV mega water supply project remains incomplete due to delays, funding constraints and lack of coordination between the federal and Sindh governments.
The project, which promises an additional 260 million gallons of water per day for Karachi, has four main components. Three are currently under construction, while work on the fourth has not begun. Although 2027 has been set as the latest deadline for water to reach Karachi homes, internal assessments suggest that without urgency on the part of both governments, completion could be delayed until 2030.
Information obtained by The Express PAkGazette revealed that the combined cost of the four components of the K-IV was Rs 253 billion. The major component involved transporting 260 million gallons per day from Keenjhar Lake to Kathore. Its original PC-1 estimated a cost of 126 billion rupees, but rising prices of construction materials have pushed the revised estimate to 170 billion rupees. The federal government has yet to approve the revised PC-1. If approved, the total cost of the four components will increase from Rs 253 billion to Rs 297 billion.
Karachi’s water demand is 1.2 billion gallons daily, but the city receives only 650 million gallons from the Indus River and the Hub Dam. Despite the shortfall, no additional Indus dues have been agreed, even as the city’s demand continues to rise. The existing supply is consumed through tanker operations, underground extraction, leaks and industrial needs before reaching residential neighborhoods, leaving citizens with an insufficient proportion.
The main K-IV project started in 2016 under the Sindh government and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC). Initially budgeted at Rs 25 billion and intended to be completed in two years with matching federal-provincial funding, it soon became controversial due to design errors and mismanagement. Costs rose dramatically and construction stopped in 2018 after just 20 percent progress.
In 2021, the federal government transferred the project to the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), which completely redesigned it. Construction has resumed in 2022 and is scheduled for completion in December 2025. “About 65 per cent of the work is complete, but progress has slowed down as the federal government released much less than the required Rs 40 billion for the current fiscal year. Till date, Rs 85 billion has been released for the project,” a WAPDA official said, on condition of anonymity.
WAPDA South general manager and project director Amir Mughal claimed that the funding issue had already been resolved, with federal allocations increased from Rs 3.2 billion to Rs 8.25 billion, while the Sindh government was expected to release its outstanding Rs 8.5 billion soon. “Due to rising costs, the revised PC-1 amounts to Rs 170 billion and is awaiting federal approval. The project is now expected to be completed by December 2026,” Mughal said.
However, the Sindh government is overseeing three other K-IV projects. The Rs 71,000-crore K-IV Expansion Plan, delayed by two years due to administrative and World Bank approvals, started in November and will set up a 95-kilometre bulk distribution system; its first phase of 2.7 kilometers from NIPA to Hasan Square, costing Rs 3,000 crore, will be completed this month.
Apart from this, the Rs 40,000-crore KB feeder lining project is rehabilitating the 38-km canal from the Indus to Keenjhar Lake, where silt and damage reduce the flow to 6,000 cusecs instead of 9,700; 30 percent of the work is complete and is scheduled for completion in June 2027. The fourth component, a Rs 16 billion power supply project by Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company, will install a 132 kV line from Jhimpir to the K-IV pumping complex, but work has not started due to withheld funds, threatening the delivery of 260 million gallons per day to Karachi. In this regard, the correspondent’s repeated attempts to contact the Sindh Energy Secretary for clarification proved fruitless.
