KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday inaugurated the first phase of a landmark wastewater treatment and reuse project in Karachi, launching a 35-million-gallon-per-day (MGD) facility designed to supply recycled water to industries while freeing an equivalent quantity of freshwater for domestic consumption in the water-starved metropolis.
The Karachi Industrial Water Park, also known as Treatment Plant-I (TP-1), at Haroonabad is being developed under the Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan and is planned to have a total treatment capacity of 100 MGD. Its second phase, involving an additional 65 MGD, was also launched on Saturday, with completion targeted within six months. Once fully operational, the facility is expected to provide up to 100 MGD of treated industrial process water by 2027.
The project represents a shift from treating wastewater merely as a disposal problem to turning it into a reusable resource for Karachi’s industrial economy. By replacing freshwater currently consumed by industries with treated municipal wastewater, the project is intended to conserve precious freshwater resources for households while reducing the volume of polluted water entering Karachi’s rivers and the sea.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony, Bilawal described the project as a historic initiative and said resolving Karachi’s water crisis remained among the PPP’s foremost priorities. He said Karachi’s water requirements had to be addressed alongside the city’s wider infrastructure problems and stressed that the new project would serve both industrial and populated areas while helping reduce pollution in the city, its waterways and the sea.
“Water has remained our biggest priority for Karachi,” Bilawal said, pointing to the broader water scarcity confronting Pakistan, particularly Sindh.
He criticised what he described as the failure to provide Sindh its due share under the agreed water-distribution arrangements, saying the province and Karachi continued to face shortages while projects were undertaken upstream without adequately addressing Sindh’s requirements.
Bilawal said the 1991 Water Apportionment Accord explicitly recognised the need for additional water for Sindh to meet Karachi’s requirements, but, in his view, the province continued to be deprived of its due share.
Against this backdrop, he said, the Sindh government and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had decided to make better use of the water already available to the city by conserving, treating and reusing it.
He referred to another recent initiative in Keamari, where a 25 MGD water-treatment facility had been inaugurated a few months ago, with a further 55 MGD capacity planned. The Haroonabad project, he said, represented another major step towards addressing Karachi’s chronic water shortage.
Bilawal said the SITE industrial area was a major centre of employment and economic activity not only for Karachi but for Pakistan as a whole. The first phase of TP-1 would provide 35 MGD of treated water for the industrial area, while the second phase would add another 65 MGD, taking the plant’s total capacity to 100 MGD.
The PPP chairman underlined the environmental dimension of the project, saying the treatment and reuse of wastewater would reduce the discharge of polluted water into the sea and other water bodies.
The project’s circular-economy model means that wastewater generated by the city will be treated and converted into water suitable for industrial processes rather than being allowed to become an environmental liability. The resulting substitution of treated wastewater for freshwater is expected to make more freshwater available for drinking and household needs.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, speaking at the ceremony, described TP-1 as a major milestone in Karachi’s efforts to strengthen water security, support sustainable industrial development and confront the growing challenge of water scarcity.
He said the project reflected Bilawal’s vision of modern infrastructure, environmental responsibility and sustainable economic development, while appreciating the role of KMC and all other stakeholders involved in its development.
The CM termed the facility Pakistan’s first large-scale project of its kind aimed at converting wastewater into a reusable resource for industrial purposes.
Under Phase I, industries will receive 35 MGD of treated wastewater. Murad said this was particularly significant because an equivalent quantity of freshwater — 35 MGD — would consequently become available for domestic use by Karachi’s residents.
In practical terms, he said, freshwater that is currently allocated to industries can instead be diverted to households, helping the city meet its rapidly growing domestic water requirements.
With Phase I now inaugurated and the 65 MGD expansion formally launched, the Haroonabad project places wastewater reuse at the centre of Karachi’s emerging water strategy. Its stated objective is straightforward: water that was once treated as waste will increasingly be treated as a resource — supplying industry, conserving freshwater for homes and reducing the pollution burden on Karachi’s waterways and coastline.
Turning Karachi’s wastewater into a water resource: Bilawal opens TP-1
