Karachi faces water crisis as K-3 pumping station hit by power outage

KARACHI: Residents of several Karachi localities continue to face severe water shortages after the city’s key K-3 pumping station suffered a major power breakdown last night, and the fault has yet to be repaired, a spokesperson for the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KW&SC) said.

The outage comes amid repeated power interruptions by K-Electric, which have badly affected the city’s water pumping system. The K-3 station had already faced a major malfunction on Tuesday, with electricity restored only after a 41-hour delay.

A few hours later, another fault occurred in the electric cable, forcing the station to shut down again. Earlier on Monday, the station was also temporarily closed to fix technical issues, but problems persisted.

As a result of these breakdowns, an estimated 335 million gallons of water could not be pumped, severely disrupting supply across the city. North Nazimabad, Gulberg Town, Gulistan-e-Johar, Scheme 33, various blocks of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, New Karachi, Saddar, and Clifton are among the most affected areas.

At the Dhabeji pumping station, prolonged power interruptions on November 5, 11, 13, and 15 due to cable faults have further worsened the water crisis.

KW&SC officials said that despite all administrative and technical efforts, ongoing electricity disruptions are affecting pumping operations. They urged K-Electric’s management to restore continuous and reliable power supply to the pumping stations so that water supply in Karachi can return to normal at the earliest.