The World Bank has approved a $240 million loan for the Karachi Water and Sewerage Project.
According to details, the funds provided by the World Bank will be spent on Karachi’s Water and Sewerage Project 2.
The World Bank has stated that the project aims to provide clean drinking water to Karachi’s residents and improve the city’s sewage system. The project is expected to provide clean water to 16 million people while improving sewerage services for 7.5 million citizens.
The World Bank further mentioned that the Pakistani government will contribute an additional $250 million to the project, and a commercial loan of $269 million will be secured from the private sector notably, in August 2017, it was highlighted that 91% of the water supplied to Karachi is not potable.
According to the report, a 9-member task force set up by the Supreme Court in 2016 revealed that 83.5% of the water in 14 out of 29 districts of Sindh was unsafe for drinking.
A senior research officer at the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Murtaza, had told The Third Pole that 460 water samples were collected from across Sindh, with Karachi’s water being the most contaminated.
The report showed that 88.1% (104 out of 118) of samples taken from Karachi tested positive for coliform bacteria, exceeding the limit set by the World Health Organization, while 33.4% (40 samples) showed contamination from fecal matter (E. coli bacteria).
According to the data, 90.7% of the water samples from various locations in Karachi were deemed unsafe for drinking. Murtaza explained.
