Daily Times

Former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi has slammed the authorities over their inability to resolve the water shortage in the port city.

In a tweet, he lamented that the country has been around for 70 years, with Karachi being the hub of all activities, however, the problems of the city, specifically the water shortage, remain to be solved.

“Governments have come into power and gone, yet the water crisis has not been solved and the residents continue to suffer,” he added.

Meanwhile, water level in Hub Dam has reportedly dropped to a dangerously low level, creating an acute shortage of water in the metropolis.

On Saturday, Karachi residents were seen forming long queues at a hydrant, which entertains between 300 and 400 requests to provide water tankers.

The main sources of water for Karachi are Keenjhar lake (Indus River) and Hub dam, from where water is pumped through three main bulk pumping stations located at Dhabeji, Gharo, and Hub.

According to former provincial minister Jam Khan Shoro, about 550MGD are supplied from the Indus and 100MGD from the Hub in normal circumstances to meet the needs of the city’s more than 17 million-strong population.

Overall, Pakistan is dependent on a single source for water – the Indus Basin, where water flows downstream from India to Pakistan. More than 90 percent of the country’s drinking water comes from groundwater, which is being recharged by the extensive irrigation network of the Indus Basin.

Published in Daily Times, June 26^th 2018.