Karachi: Kamal vows to set up desalination plants

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: City Nazim Mustafa Kamal has vowed to set up desalination plants in city and produce electricity for the citizens. “It costs $300 million for converting 50 million gallon seawater into potable water,” he said. Kamal said this while addressing the intellectuals and dignitaries of the city on the book launching ceremony held at the Arts Council of Pakistan (ACP) on Wednesday night. He said the city’s need for water is 600 million gallons per day but the need would double by 2013. Karachi does not have a dam, river or water reservoir. The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board pays Rs 2.5 billion as electricity bills because the water is pumped to the city from remote areas of the province. If due to any reason, these water links are disconnected or the rivers dry up, the city will have no source of water. But we have the sea and technology that we could use to convert saline seawater into potable water, he said. Kamal said that it is unfortunate that this city does not have a Mass Transit System (MTS). I brought investors to the city for the MTS but the investors returned because the government of Pakistan could not offer the sovereign guarantee that they needed, commented Kamal. staff report

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