-Govt completes only 38 per cent work on mega water project
ISLAMABAD: While Sindh government has already complained about slashes in revenue shares from divisible pool, the centre has gone ahead with setting conditions for further releases to the mega water supply project of Sindh, the Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme (K-IV).
According to sources, the Ministry of Finance has made it clear to Sindh government that the centre will not be able to release more funds until the provincial government resolves the issues related to the mega projects.
During the monitoring and inspection of the mega water scheme in Karachi in October 2018, several issues at implementation level were identified and subsequently the same was conveyed to the provincial government for taking remedial measures.
Further, the Planning Commission has also asked the provincial government to utilise the already released funds and ensure the resolution of all identified issues before asking for further releases.
As per the documents, the centre has released Rs9.598 billion out of the committed Rs12.7 billion for the mega project so far. However, the Sindh government has only utilised Rs2.6 billion out of the Rs9.59 billion which is 75 per cent of the total committed share in the project.
As per standard procedure for release of funds under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) schemes, the provincial government needed to submit quarterly demands of funds at the Ministry of Planning and Development, along with a progress report about the development and utilisation of already released funds. The ministry of finance releases the funds on the recommendation of the planning ministry after analysing the progress in the project.
Sources claim that the Sindh government was demanding more releases without ensuring implementation progress on the mega scheme. As per the documents, the centre had released Rs2.2 billion, Rs400 million and Rs6.998 billion during financial years 2014-15, 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively, making the total releases a total of Rs9.598 billion.
Keeping the issues related to the project in view, the federal government has also recommended an audit of the K-IV budget. It is pertinent to mention here that despite the grave situation of water supply to megacity Karachi, only 38 per cent of the work on K-IV, has been completed.
As per the progress report of the one-man commission on water and sanitation in Sindh recently placed before the Supreme Court (SC), although the acquisition of encroached land had been progressed considerably, a 5.7-kilometre-long portion was yet to be handed over to the project executing agency.
It further said that on the intervention of the commission, the mega project of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board had been put on a faster track with inclusion of ancillary works, power plant and augmentation project. The commission had also expressed annoyance over the failure of the authorities concerned in providing any substantial material about the 22 realignments in the K-IV and warned that it might refer the matter to the National Accountability Bureau after an application was filed against realignments.
Initiated in 2007, according to the initial project report, it would spread across 120 canals and a network of pipelines. However, the project is being delayed since the last seven years due to the inefficiency of the Sindh government and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB). The Sindh government only released 50 per cent of the amount for the project and the other half is still pending.
After seven years of delay, the Sindh government again approved the project in 2014 along with a PC-1 and allocated government land worth Rs6 billion.
In July 2016, the KWSB assigned the construction work for phase one of K-IV to Frontier Works Organisation (FWO). It was the responsibility of the water board to provide land and electricity for the project but they failed and wasted three years from 2015 to 2018. They still don’t have land or an electricity network to carry out the project. Out of the land allocated for this project, 80 per cent is government land but a part of it in Malir belongs to citizens.
The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) had approved the project (Phase-I) 260 MGD at rationalised cost of Rs25.551 billion with the equal cost-sharing by federal and Sindh Government.
However, sources say that the cost of the project has been doubled due to the delay in execution. The centre and Sindh government are yet to finalise the revised cost of the project. The project was initially designed to provide 650 million gallons of water to Karachi daily, in three phases. The new water supply will be extracted from Keenjhar Lake through three water canals.
