The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) is now able to initiate the S-III project, sources said on Sunday.
The project’s significant components include establishment of water pumping stations, upgrading existing water pumping and sewerage treatment plants, and establishment of water treatment plants at four sites in the city.
The project was conceived in 2005 and its feasibility report was completed the next year, while the PC-I cost was Rs 8 billion.
However, the KWSB had been financially incapable to take up the huge project on its own, so it approached the Sindh government, which was also not willing to take it up.
Moreover, the federal government was also reluctant to own the project and insisted that the provincial government own it because it was a provincial matter.
Later on, the federal government, the provincial government and the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) agreed to take up the S-III project as a joint venture with a 33 percent share each.
By then, the PC-I cost of the project had escalated to Rs 13 billion and it is not yet sure when the work on the treatment plant would start.
Sources in the KWSB said the KPT would establish a plant on a land near the KPT head office and it would have a capacity to treat 50 million gallons of sewage a day.
The treatment plant would be established from the 33 percent allocated share, and after completion of the plant, the KPT would give the remaining amount to the KWSB.
The land proposed by the KPT for the project is in litigation as the Sindh Board of Revenue is also claiming ownership of that land.
In the current fiscal budget, the provincial government had allocated Rs 250 million under the Annual Development Programme, from which Rs 120 million have been recently released.
The amount of sewage being produced in the city amounts to around 450 million gallons per day and a big portion of it is being drained untreated into the Arabian Sea.
The sewerage treatment plant of Mauripur has a capacity of treating 96 million gallons of sewage, and it is currently treating around 40 million gallons of sewage a day.
The Shershah sewage treatment plant has a capacity of treating 54 million gallons of sewage a day, and the sewage treatment capacity of the Mehmoodabad treatment plant is between 40 million and 45 million gallons per day.
A new venue for the establishment of sewage treatment plant has been identified in Shah Faisal Colony. The sewerage treatment plant at Korangi, with a capacity of treating 200 million gallons of sewage a day, is also on the cards.
The KWSB has plans to establish sewage treatment plants on a 300-acre land in Korangi, 50-acre land in Shah Faisal Town and 10-acre land in Sohrab Goth.
The provincial government has already approved these plans, but the Sindh Board of Revenue has yet to finalise the allotment of these lands.
The KWSB management is also looking forward to improve the existing capacity of sewage treatment plant on a 134-acre land in SITE jurisdiction from 54 million gallons to 100 million gallons.
