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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Karachi facing water shortage due to power cuts

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Karachi is experiencing a water shortage of about 20 mgd daily and by the fifth day it had reached the shortage level of 90 mgd because of the shortage of power supply to its pumping stations.

“The Water Board is unable to supply 650 mgd water which has by now come down to 450 mgd,” a spokesman of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) disclosed, adding that a water crisis had developed in all areas of the city because power cut by the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC).

The KWSB has now enforced rotated water supply system and there had been shut down of water in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on November 25.

There will be no water supply to PAF Masroor, Baldia, Sher Shah, Pak Colony, Old Golimar, Nazimabad and SITE from 8 pm on November 26 for next the 24 hours, a KWSB announcement said.

It had already been warned the disconnection of power supply to the pumping stations of the KWSB could cause a severe crisis situation.

The KWSB, a public utility organization, has been supplying water on a very nominal rate on no profit no loss basis, despite the rate of recovery being on the lower side.


NED University’s Petroleum Engineering department attains global recognition

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Texas-based Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) has declared the Petroleum Engineering Department of the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, as an outstanding chapter of the year 2013.

The NED University’s SPE student chapter has received the Outstanding Chapter Award (OCA) for the second time. The chapter has distinguished itself as one of the top seven distinguished SPE chapters around the globe.  

The other OCA recipients for 2013 are the University of Lagos, the Malaysia University of Technology, the University of Aberdeen, the Universidade Estadual Do Norte Fluminense, Darcy Riberio, the University of Tulsa and Tyumen State Oil & Gas University.

The Exclusive SPE student chapter of Pakistan has received all the three prestigious awards including chapter of the month and the Gold Standard status besides the OCA in the SPE Middle East North Africa and India region.

After receiving these prestigious awards in 2011, the chapter has been crowned once again with the OCA for the year 2013 through assessment of its programmes, activities, and levels of participation during a single academic year in respect to over 200 other chapters worldwide.

The SPE Student Chapter team of Petroleum Engineering Department enjoys the pride and honour to raise the flag of Pakistan in the whole region and to have brought laurels to the university and the department through this regional and international recognition.

The SPE, founded in 1957 as a constituent society of the American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME), is acclaimed as one of the largest individual-member organization serving managers, engineers, scientists and other professionals worldwide in the upstream segment of the oil and gas industry. It had become a separately incorporated organization in 1985.

The Oil and Gas Committee of AIME had evolved into the Petroleum Division of AIME as membership grew and as interest among the members was more clearly delineated among the mining, metallurgical, and petroleum specializations.

The SPE has reached its highest number of members in its history, partly due to the high growth rate in the number of student members and chapters. It continues its constant search for new ways to meet member needs in all phases of their careers in all parts of the world.

Meanwhile Prof Dr Muhammad Afzal Haque, Vice Chancellor, NED University of Engineering and Technology, and Prof Dr Sarosh Hashmat Lodi, Dean, CEA, have congratulated the Department of Petroleum Engineering, headed by its chairman Prof Dr Abid Murtaza Khan, on their accomplishments.