The Sindh government and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) — a member of the World Bank Group — signed a landmark agreement on Tuesday to help provide clean drinking water to nearly one million people of Karachi.
The signing ceremony was held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.
The project, to be executed by a private company, would include water treatment facilities and what was known as a bulk water conveyance system, Shah said and added that the system would supply Karachi with 65 million gallons of water per day from Keenjhar Lake, some 140 kilometres from the city.
The CM said that with a population of over 16 million, Karachi, the capital of Sindh, was Pakistan’s largest city, economic hub and main seaport, but it had struggled to maintain a reliable freshwater supply.
He added that under the agreement, the IFC would advise the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) on structuring and tendering a project to build new infrastructure to boost the city’s water supply.
