KARACHI: Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) will take control of over 18 Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants in city after the contract period of Pak Oasis Company (POC) expires on June 30, 2018. Project Director RO Plant, Ovais Malik in a letter issued on May 13, 2018, informed Water Board, Techno Consultant Company and POC that Water Board would handle the operations and management (O&M) of the RO plants for the next financial year. Ovais Malik, in his letter, said that the KWSB had no expertise in running RO plants but it was engaged in a dialogue with relevant personnel and it planned on tendering the job for a new contract. The outgoing contractor POC was asked to provide information regarding the condition and inventory of equipment and tools installed at different RO plants The letter asked POC for specific information regarding the installed capacity against function capacity, skids capacity, type and quantity of high pressure pumps, number and condition of membranes, quantity and condition of cartridge, bag and multimedia filters, VFD control panels, feed water intake system, number of wells and their capacity, quantity and condition of submersible pumps, diesel generator rating, the condition of piping system and infrastructurefor K-Electric (KE) connection, including transformer, cables, VCB and related equipment According to the letter, Water Board would be responsible for the the supervision of all functions and maintenance job related to quality, process and funding of the RO plants. POC had been running these RO plants for last 5 years to ensure the supply of potable water Keamari and Lyari zones in Karachi. Sindh government had allocated Rs 5.75 billion and paid full money to POC during this time. Previously, the Sindh Finance Department had admitted that from 2011 to 2017, a total of Rs 10 billion had been spent on 18 RO plants located in Keamari and Lyari Water Board would take control of RO plants in 500 Quarter Kemari, PAF Masroor Base, Kemari, Muach Goth, Kemari, Budhni Goth, Kemari, Grax, Kemari, Musharraf Colony, Keamari, and Sikandarabad Keamari. Other plants that the WB would manage include Kamela Chock, Kemari, Chakiwara, Lyari, Trans Liyari, Rauf Park, Lyari and People’s Stadium, Lyari. These plants have the capacity of pumping one million gallons per day. Arshad Ahmad, Managing Director Oasis Company informed Daily Times that other than Karachi RO plants, the contract for Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Tando Muhammad Khan, Mitiari, Dadu, Badin, Thatta, Umerkot, Sanghar, Tando Allahyar, Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Nuashehro Feroz, Shaheed Benazirabad, Larkana, Kumber, Jacobabad, Khashmore and Shikarpur RO plants would also end by June 30. According to him, POC would not be renewing these contracts due to high costs incurred in buying equipment and handling operations. Expanding on the projects of his company, Arshad Ahmad said that using an advanced solar energy system, the POC had provided water to Mithi, Tharparkar and other water starved areas with scattered population . “We trained local area people to run their respective areas RO plants. We had made system for sweetening sea water into fresh water in Karachi to benefit sub urban areas people of city” added Arshad Ahmad. Published in Daily Times, May 31st 2018.