The power supply to the Dhabeji Pumping Station was restored after a prolonged 33-hour outage, allowing the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) to restart its pumping units and resume water supplies to areas affected by the disruption.
According to Water Corporation officials, K-Electric restored electricity to the Dhabeji Pumping Station as well as the second feeder of the K-III pumping house. Following the restoration, the KWSC staff activated the operational pumps at the Dhabeji pumping houses and began restoring water supplies to Karachi.
The prolonged power outage caused a significant disruption to the city’s water distribution system, resulting in a shortfall of approximately 238 million gallons, officials said. Several areas were affected as water could not be pumped into the city’s distribution network according to the normal schedule.
Officials said the major power breakdown occurred at around 6am on Sunday after a cable fault developed in K-Electric’s system. The fault disrupted electricity to the pumping station and forced several pumping units to shut down.
Of the 21 pumps installed at Dhabeji, 10 became non-operational following the power failure. The shutdown substantially reduced water supplies from the Dhabeji source to Karachi, putting additional pressure on the city’s already strained water distribution network.
Water Corporation teams remained engaged in monitoring the pumping infrastructure and restoring normal operations after electricity was restored. According to officials, all relevant pumps and installations at the Dhabeji pumping houses have now been made operational.
They said water supplies from Dhabeji to Karachi had resumed and that affected areas would gradually receive water according to the distribution schedule. The utility was also monitoring the system to ensure that pumping operations remained stable.
The Dhabeji pumping station was a key component of Karachi’s water supply system, and prolonged disruptions at the facility can affect supplies across large parts of the city. The 33-hour outage highlighted the impact that faults in the electricity supply system could have on Karachi’s water distribution network.
Water Corporation officials said normal pumping operations had resumed following the restoration of electricity and expressed confidence that water supplies to affected areas would improve as the system returned to its routine operating capacity.
