KARACHI (The Thursday Times) — Karachi will be about 130 million gallons of water a day short on Friday, when K-Electric and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) carry out annual maintenance at the Dhabeji pumping station, the water utility said.
The city normally receives about 650 million gallons a day (MGD). Supply will fall to about 520 MGD during the shutdown, a KWSC spokesperson said.
K-Electric has told the utility that power to the Dhabeji grid station will be cut for 14 hours, from 10am to midnight on November 13. Nine of the station’s 21 pumps will stop working during that time, the spokesperson said.
Areas affected
Landhi, Korangi, Malir, Shah Faisal, Gulshan, Clifton, Saddar, and Lyari will be affected. Supply to towns including Jinnah, Chanesar, Liaquatabad, and North Karachi will also be hit, while Nazimabad and Gulberg face partial disruption. The Landhi and Sherpao hydrants will stay closed during the shutdown.
Once K-Electric finishes its work, six of the nine pumps will restart and supply should return to normal in most areas. Landhi, Korangi, Malir, and Shah Faisal are the exception. The KWSC’s own maintenance will continue for another 22 hours, keeping three pumps offline and supply to those four areas partly disrupted.
A K-Electric spokesperson said the utility had been given advance notice. The work includes testing and servicing the grid station’s power transformer and its vacuum circuit breaker switches, and fixing technical faults while the substation is cleaned. Such maintenance is needed to keep power supply reliable, the spokesperson said.
