Brud på en stor vandledning, der forsyner Karachi i Pakistan, fik store konsekvenser og myndighederne til at spekulere over, om de har gjort nok – om overhovedet noget – for at afbøde virkningerne af klimaforandringerne.
KARACHI, 27 August 2012 (IRIN) – In early August, as people struggled to survive the humid summer heat, a huge power cut deprived almost half of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, of electricity for more than 16 hours and led to the rupture (brud) of a water pipeline carrying more than 20 percent of the city’s drinking water.
Chaos ensued as people chased after water tankers selling water at exorbitant prices; there were long queues at public water taps; and protests in the slums.
The burst pipeline exposed the country’s dilapidated (nedslidte) infrastructure, according to a recent study by the state-run Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) and the World Bank. “Erratic weather patterns” caused by climate change would make that infrastructure vulnerable in the future, it said.
“Our technical assets are quite vulnerable and what we need to do is to protect them from all potential debacles,” Misbah Farid, managing director of KWSB, told IRIN.
KWSB, which supplies water to Karachi’s 20 million people, claims to be the first public sector utility in Asia to have assessed the impact of climate change and how it could affect – and is already affecting – its “operational assets”.
“The recent years of extreme weather necessitated this study so that we could at least prepare and ultimately face the challenges in the coming years,” Ayoob Shaikh, the chief engineer who led the study for KWSB, told IRIN.
“Erratic weather patterns, wasteful usage of water and fast depletion (udtømning) of surface water resources could play havoc in the not-too-far future,” said Shaik.
Feeling the pinch (mangel/knibe)
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96186/PAKISTAN-Water-pipeline-rupture-makes-waves
