PM Shehbaz urged to release Rs40bn required for completion of Karachi's K-IV water supply project

Karachi’s water shortage has returned to the centre of political debate after Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) wrote to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, pressing the federal government to release the funds needed to finish the long-delayed K-IV water supply project.

In the letter, JI-Karachi chief Monem Zafar said a recent report presented before a National Assembly committee had heightened concern among residents by showing that the first phase of K-IV is now expected to be completed in December 2029. That phase is designed to deliver 260 million gallons of water per day to Karachi, a city the party says is already facing an acute shortage.

Zafar urged the Sindh government to prioritise the augmentation component of K-IV, while also calling on the federal government to provide the remaining money in the current fiscal year so the project can move ahead without further delay. He said the latest timeline had alarmed many Karachi residents, given the scale of the city’s water needs and the length of time the scheme has already remained unfinished.

According to the letter, Karachi requires at least 1,200 million gallons of water per day but currently receives about 550 million gallons, leaving the city with less than half of what it needs. Zafar said it was deeply unfortunate that more than half of the population of a city contributing over 50 per cent of the country’s revenue still lacked adequate water access.

He also pointed to the history of the project, saying the last major water supply scheme completed for Karachi was K-III during the tenure of former city nazim Naimatullah Khan. He added that the PC-II for K-IV had been prepared during the same period to meet the city’s future requirements, yet the project was still incomplete more than 21 years later.

The JI leader said both the Sindh and federal governments had spent years blaming each other for the delay, but Karachi residents could see that neither side had delivered the project on time. He said the Sindh government had failed to complete the K-IV augmentation work despite World Bank assistance, while the federal government had not provided enough money for the scheme.

Monem Zafar also criticised what he described as the limited federal allocation for the project. He said that against a requirement of Rs40 billion, only Rs3.2 billion was allocated in the previous budget, while the current budget provided Rs8 billion. In his view, that showed a lack of seriousness on the part of both governments.

He further argued that Karachi residents, despite contributing heavily to provincial and federal revenues, were spending billions of rupees each year on private water tankers because of the persistent shortage. If K-IV had been completed on schedule, he said, those funds could have been directed toward education, healthcare and food instead.

The report is based on a monitored public feed, with attribution to Dawn Business. Source: Dawn Business - https://www.dawn.com/news/2016854/pm-shehbaz-urged-to-release-rs40bn-required-for-completion-of-karachis-k-iv-water-supply-project