TWENTY years is a long time. Long enough for children to grow up and have children of their own. When K-IV (or the Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme) was conceived in 2006, my son and daughter were 19 and 14, respectively. Today, I am a grandmother.
Karachi has changed. So has my life. But some things never change — I still rely on water tankers.
I’m not alone. The entire lane in my Clifton neighborhood has depended on water tankers for years. When water does come through the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation’s (KWSC) pipes, we often avoid it because of recurrent sewage contamination in our underground tank. The exercise of emptying, cleaning and refilling it is costly and cumbersome.
We pay a hefty amount every other week for tanker water. Bargaining is not an option —risking it means they may not show up again, as demand is high.
It is in moments like these that the K-IV project comes to mind — Karachi’s long-awaited answer to its water woes. First proposed over two decades ago, the 650 MGD scheme was approved in 2014 after another eight-year delay, yet remains unfinished, leaving millions still waiting for water from Keenjhar Lake.
Experts say costs have increased almost seven-fold, from Rs25 billion to Rs171bn, an increase of about 583 percent. They are likely to increase due to delays that the experts can foresee.
The K-IV project has faced funding constraints and repeated delays since its inception, with deadlines repeatedly missed and project heads changed. After a nine-year delay, it was inaugurated in June 2015 by then chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, followed by two re-inaugurations — by Sindh governor Dr Ishratul Ibad in 2016 and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in 2023.
Karachi’s K-IV project has faced funding constraints and repeated delays since its inception.
When investigative journalists Mahim Maher and Sohail Khan published their landmark 2019 Exposition on K-IV — a piece that doubles as a masterclass on Karachi’s water supply system — the project was already 13 years old. Their investigation found that delays, design flaws, bureaucratic wrangling and political interferences had plagued the scheme from the very beginning.
Seven more years have passed since the piece that had named and shamed those connected with the water supply project was published. But Karachi still waits.
Now, as the project nears completion, those involved with it find the last mile to be the hardest.
‘If all goes well’ seems to be a common refrain used at high-level meetings, as though not using the phrase may tempt fate and lead to another delay. The latest completion deadline is December 2028. But nothing is set in stone.
While these four words — ‘if all goes well’ — speak volumes about a project that has spent 24 years missing deadlines, it is important to understand why K-IV discussions are peppered with this phrase.
Even if the core K-IV elements in the project are completed by the end of this year, as informed by insiders, without the 50 MW power supply required to bring alive the pumping complex near Keenjhar, the water cannot even be pumped out of the lake. Construction of the power infrastructure, due for completion by June 2027, only began in March this year, making it unlikely to be operational on time.
Another major hurdle is the Rs74bn K-IV Augmentation Project, which will connect the K-IV reservoirs to Karachi’s distribution network. With 80pc of its funding coming from World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank loans, the project must meet stringent social, environmental, health and safety standards that have repeatedly delayed construction.
As a result, only 2.7 kilometers of the planned 98 km pipeline is under construction, with work halted at least three times over compliance issues, while the remaining 95 km is still awaiting procurement and tender approvals.
The institutional outlook is equally troubling. With no recruitment since 2008 under the former KWSB or its successor, the KWSC, nearly half of its 9,000 employees are expected to retire within the next five years, leaving no new cadre of qualified personnel to carry forward the institutional memory needed to run the utility.
Compounding the problem is a board that, arguably, lacks both independence and the expertise needed to effectively steer either the utility or the Karachi Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project, the agency executing the augmentation project under the water corporation.
For Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s vision of a “modern and sustainable water supply system” for Karachi to materialise, all stakeholders must move with urgency. Otherwise, parts of the completed infrastructure could deteriorate from prolonged inactivity.
However, acceleration in pace requires seamless funding which has not happened. Loans from foreign institutions may take time to arrive and be processed, but it was the federal government’s responsibility to ensure a smooth flow of funds for the project. Last year, the federal government allocated only Rs3.2bn in the budget against a required Rs40bn. Even after raising it to Rs8.5bn, a shortfall of Rs31.5bn remains.
In all this time, however, three things have remained remarkably constant: the PPP’s continuing rule in Sindh, the thriving water-tanker economy and Karachi’s chronic thirst. It is against the backdrop of these constants that Karachi’s water crisis continues to unfold.
But it is not just about bringing more water to the city. Who is going to fix the crumbling distribution network or the aging and ailing sewerage system?
What about the weak governance, unchecked urban growth and decades of lethargy by different departments? Even if K-IV pumps water from Keenjhar and moves it to Karachi, it cannot fix the system. That, perhaps, is the lesson of Karachi’s water story in 2026. n
The writer is an independent journalist based in Karachi.
Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2026
