KARACHI:
The Chief Minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa recently announced that the staff managing water pump stations in the province will be doubled. This, however, is not a very good idea because it would cost the government additional revenue in salaries and pensions without improving service.
Each pumping station already employs at least two workers. However, the employees do not show up to work due to lack of accountability. In addition, the water meters are broken in most of the pumping stations and there is no maintenance schedule. The local villagers are told to manage the water flow themselves but they make mistakes, which results in water wastage. Regrettably, the government does not have a proper checking, measuring or maintenance system. Physical registers are used for record management. There is no customer service or complaint registration process due to which people cannot register complaints about any issues they face.
I believe that instead of hiring more staff, the honourable Chief Minister should consider improving the management of the pumping stations. There should be regular checks on the existing staff and those that fail to perform their duties must be replaced.
Shahryar Khan
Peshawar
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2021.
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