Government institutions — both provincial and federal — owe more than Rs50 billion to the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC), fresh data shared by the city mayor shows revealing financial challenges faced by the already cash-strapped organisation.
Because of the financial challenges, the water utility has been finding it hard to manage the growing operational cost of its essential operation, said Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab, who is also the chairman of the board of the KWSC.
Among key defaulters are some of the major state-owned business organisations, which have stopped paying the water supply bills of their hundreds of thousand gallons of con-sumption, he added.
Barrister Wahab claimed that despite multiple reminders to these government institutions, the dues could not be recovered.
Less than half a million consumers pay their bills regularly for water supply and sanitation services, he added.
“The KWSC has liabilities of Rs52 billion to government institutions, in which the Steel Mill owes the highest amount,” he said. “The irony is that the power utility has 3.4 million registered consumers while we [KWSC] have only 1.4 million registered consumers despite the fact that millions of people are get-ting water supply regularly.
