The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has decided to file a contempt of court petition against the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) for what it called “load shedding in the name of cable faults at its pumping stations” despite exemption accorded to Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s pumping stations from load shedding by the Sindh High Court.
According to Karachi Water and Sewerage Board spokesman, the managing director of KWSB, Misbahuddin Farid directed the legal department to proceed for legal action against the KESC.
He alleged that the KESC had made a habit of resorting to hours-long load shedding in the name of technical faults at its main pumping stations which created water shortage in the metropolis.
Above all, the KESC was releasing misleading statements to the media showing that it was supplying uninterrupted power to the board and lamenting that Karachi Water and Sewerage Board was equally responsible for water shortage.
The spokesman said eth KWSB was a service organization, paying electricity tariff as commercial entity to the KESC which had raised the power tariff from Rs 4.20 per unit to Rs 17 per unit in the last five years.
He said the KWSB provided water at no-profit-no-loss basis to its consumers and paying its bills regularly to the KESC despite losses.
Giving details, he said the KWSB could not supply 320 million gallons of water per day from its Dhabeji pumping station due to 70 hours of load shedding.
Similarly, it could not supply 310 MGD of water from its Pipri station because of 48 hours load shedding and 120 MGD of water from its North East of Karachi due to 40 hours.
The spokesman said due to 55 hours of load shedding, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board could not supply 98 MGD of water from its Dhabeji pumping station and 105 MGD from its pumping station at Hub due to 22 hours load shedding.
