Staff Reporter
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has vowed to make Karachi a peaceful and prosperous city.
He was talking to an eight-member delegation of Chinese State-owned company, Energy China led by its President Mr Luo Bixiong who called on him here at the CM House.
He said that if Karachi moves (in terms of economy) the whole country moves; therefore, Karachi has to develop faster for which he is making all out efforts by utilizing local resources and the resources and expertise of donor agencies to make it livable city and city of peace and prosperity.
The meeting discussed K-IV project which has been halted temporarily to make necessary changes on its design. “National engineering firm, NESPAC is working on its design and as soon as it is finalized work would be started,” The chief minister said and added that the K-IV was most important project and would ensure to its completion.
The chief minister pointed out that the Karachi was the city of 17 million souls and its water requirement has been estimated at 1200 gallon per day but it was receiving only 500 MGD. “We are working on different options to increase bulk water supply to the city so that its domestic as well as industrial requirement could be met,” he said.
The meeting discussed different options for working together. The Hub River source conveyance system has flaws and faults, therefore line losses have been recorded much higher than the acceptable. The Chinese company showed interest to improve the system from Hub Source to Karachi.
The Chinese company on the chief minister’s request said that they would work out details, including the estimated cost to install a 100 MGD desalination plant in Karachi. It was pointed out that in the past the desalination technology was uneconomical but now the latest technology has not only turned to be economical but more efficient.
The third proposal which came under discussion was treatment of Malir River waste water to use it for industrial purposes. The Chinese company said that they would work out a plant for treatment of waste water for Sindh government.
The Chinese firm was told that the provincial government was working with FWO on K-IV phase-I, therefore the Chinese firms showed interest to work in phase-II and III of K-IV and proposed that if the cost project was too high it could be included in CPEC projects.
