In August 2018, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that the Sindh provincial government in Pakistan had approved a desalination plant for Karachi. Chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah asked for work to start with top urgency. The newly formed provincial cabinet took the decision at the session in which it formally declared drought in the Tharparkar and Umerkot districts, where an estimated 367,000 families faced severe water shortages. A budget covering the plant was due by 30 September 2018.
The report showed an acute provincial drought pushing desalination for Karachi onto the political agenda before site, size or funding had been settled.