Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif lays foundation for K-IV Karachi water project
Federal government to provide Rs126 billion required to complete project
Karachi: Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, on Friday laid the foundation stone for K-IV Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme for providing a total of 650 million gallons daily (MGD) additional water supply to the provincial capital.
The ceremony of the K-IV project was held at the Sindh Chief Minister House and attended by Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Federal Minister for Water Resources, Khursheed Ahmed Shah, Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Faisal Sabzwari, Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori, CM Syed Murad Ali Shah, and other officials.
Chairman of Water & Power Development Authority (Wapda), Lt General (retired) Sajjad Ghani, said at the launch ceremony that the Wapda had been tasked by the federal government to build the K-IV project aimed at overcoming acute shortage of potable water in the city.
He said the Wapda would do its best to ensure completion of the first phase of the K-IV project aimed at providing 260 MGD water to Karachi by October next year with a cost of Rs33 billion.
He said the federal government would provide Rs126 billion required to complete the K-IV project.
The Wapda Chairman said the commissioning of the project would go a long way in fulfilling the water needs of consumers in Karachi belonging to domestic, commercial, and industrial sectors.
Once completed, the project would also contribute to the causes of poverty alleviation and economic stability in the city.
Ghani informed the audience that the Wapda with support from the federal government and international donor agencies had been completing 22 big and small projects with a cost of US $ 26 billion.
He said that these projects aimed at enhancing the water storage and hydroelectricity generation capacity of Pakistan would be completed in the next five years in different phases.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said he was delighted that representatives of coalition partners of his government belonging to Sindh, the Pakistan People’s Party and Muttahida Quami Movement, attended the ceremony as a sign of unity at the national level for resolving the issues of Karachi.
He said the residents of Karachi, the city considered to be the economic hub of Pakistan and generates most of the revenue for the national exchequer, shouldn’t face water shortage.
The PM assured the audience that the upcoming federal budget would contain ample allocation of funds to ensure the timely completion of the K-IV project.
He said that once the K-IV project would be commissioned the government would use other means including the desalination of seawater to meet future water requirements of Karachi.