Karachi water supply suspended due to cable fault at K-3

KARACHI: The city is currently facing a shortage of 335 million gallons of water due to a power disruption at the K-III station, which began at 12 AM on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. This was confirmed by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project (KWSSIP), ARY News reported.

The KWSSIP informed that, despite 13 hours having passed, the cable fault could not be fixed. This comes just days after a prior power breakdown occurred on November 18.

K-Electric had restored the electricity after a 41-hour hiatus on November 20. However, after running for just a few hours, power to the K-III pumping station was shut down again due to another cable fault.

The power disruption at the pumping station has suspended water supply to North Nazimabad, Gulberg Town, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, and Scheme 33.

Additionally, various blocks of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, New Karachi, Saddar, and Clifton are facing water scarcity.

KWSSIP Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Asad Ullah commented on the situation, informing that frequent technical faults are causing electrical power breakdowns at Dhabeji.

He added that these electricity faults are what suspend the water supply at the pumping station, emphasizing that if there were no such breakdowns, an uninterrupted water supply would continue.

The public described the situation as very grim, stating that water tankers are either unavailable or only available at exorbitant prices that the masses cannot afford.

Earlier this month, Karachi faced a shortage of 100 million gallons of water per day (MGD) after a power breakdown at the Dhabeji pumping station disrupted a key pipeline, the Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) said in a statement on November 16.

According to KWSC, the breakdown occurred in Phase 2 of the Dhabeji pumping station, resulting in the shutdown of two pumps and damage to Line No. 5 of the water supply system.

A KWSC spokesperson said the power failure—caused by K-Electric—could create a shortage of 100 MGD in Karachi. Repair work on the affected pipeline near Thatta is underway on an emergency basis, the spokesperson added.

This marks the second power breakdown at Dhabeji within days. On the night of November 13, a similar breakdown caused a shortfall of 40 MGD in the city’s water supply. That outage was attributed to a cable fault, which had shut down two major pumps at the K-3 pump house.

Meanwhile, K-Electric (KE) issued a statement clarifying that alternative power sources are currently supplying electricity to the Dhabeji pumping station. However, water seepage from pipelines is creating difficulties for repair crews and damaging underground cables. KE said the issue of water leakage has been formally reported to the relevant authorities.