In Karachi, lengthy power failures caused by K-Electric have severely disrupted water-pumping operations at key stations, resulting in substantial water wastage. The Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) reports that a breakdown at the K-3 pumping station alone forced shutdowns and triggered a loss of hundreds of millions of gallons of water.
The outages predominantly affected areas across North Nazimabad, Gulberg, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Scheme 33, New Karachi, Saddar and Clifton, intensifying an already deep water-shortage crisis in the city.
KWSC officials say that despite attempts to resolve cable faults, power disruptions keep recurring — and each time water-pumping is suspended, the city loses large volumes of water, with estimates ranging from 215 million to over 300 million gallons of water lost.
The pumping station breakdowns, said to stretch for over 13-41 hours in some instances, spotlight how vulnerable Karachi’s water supply system is to the reliability of electricity from K-Electric.
Officials are urging K-Electric to prioritise stable electricity supply to critical pumping infrastructure to mitigate further water losses and alleviate the severe supply disruption facing Karachi’s residents.