The Hawkes Bay desalination project in Pakistan took a step forward on 15 January 2009, when Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah presided over a meeting regarding the desalination plant for Karachi at the Chief Minister’s House.
Norwegian company Aqualyng signed a contract in June 2008 with the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board for a plant with a total capacity of 50 MGD (227,000 m³/d) to be established alongside a 46 MW power plant. The total cost of the project will be US$ 300 million.
The meeting decided to approve the proposals for the project, and it was decided to form a committee headed by the secretary for local governments to prepare suggestions and proposals for rates for land, water rate and other issues within 10 days.
At the same time, the Karachi Port Trust announced plans for three much smaller desalination plants at Manora, Keamari Oil Installation and TPX, at an estimated cost of Rs. 300 million (US$3.8 million) to meet its water requirement for residential areas and ships calling at Karachi Port. The three 910m³/d plants will be built in different phases to meet the KPT’s requirement for clean drinking water.
In phase one, the Manora Island plant construction will start by March 2009 and be completed by December 2009. The Keamari Oil Installation and TPX plants are planned for phase two.