Urban Forum : Voice sought for elected govts in service delivery companies

Speakers say people expect their representatives to be responsible

LAHORE:

Speakers at a session at the 3rd Pakistan Urban Forum on Sunday stressed the need for providing adequate representation to the newly-elected local government leaders in the boards of directors of recently-established companies for delivery of various municipal services in major cities.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Local Government Minister Enayat Ullah Khan said the provincial government in the province had decided to give representation to elected leaders on the BoDs of such companies.

However, Khan said there was still a need to carefully review the relations between the elected local government and the administration of these companies. “We need to evolve a mechanism where these companies are answerable to elected local governments but remain free from arbitrary politically-motivated interference,” he said.



Khan said the establishment of companies like the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) and the Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP) had led to considerable improvements in service delivery standards in major cities. However, he said the general public expected the elected local governments to be responsible for delivery of these services. “Local government elections have been completed. Once the newly elected representatives take charge of their office, they will definitely raise questions about their role in the operations of these companies,” he said.

He said decades of unrest had been responsible for the poor state of governance in the KP. He said when the current government took office the physical infrastructure had disintegrated and was in need of an overhaul. By comparison, he said the Punjab had witnessed a continuity of policies for three decades. He said the provincial government was committed to improving service delivery standards.

Earlier, representatives from all waste management companies in the province shared their experiences at a session on Cleaner Cities. Former Lahore Waste Management Company chairman Khawaja Ahmed Hassaan chaired the session.

Rain-water harvesting 

Speakers at a session on rainwater harvesting emphasised the need to explore alternate ways of providing potable water to cities. They said that Pakistan was a water scarce country. It could not, therefore, afford to be profligate with its fresh water resources.

‘Design improvements could have enhanced metro’s utility’

Urban planning students at a session on problems faced by commuters sought improvements in public transport systems. University of Engineering and Technology scholar Usman Sheikh said that the Lahore metro bus service was catering to the needs of a large number of people but some improvements in project design could have further enhanced its utility. He said the bus service had been inaugurated without linking it to feeder routes. Other participants said that fast and efficient public transport systems were the key to the success of developed countries. Gulab Khan, a participant from Peshawar University, said that because of the poor state of public transport in the country commuters ended up wasting several hours of their day.

Speaking at another session, The Urban Unit chief executive officer Nasir Javed highlighted the importance of private-public partnerships in municipal service delivery. He said it had taken the LWMC only a couple of months to procure machinery worth millions of rupees. A public sector institute would have taken years to finish the task, he said. However, he also stressed the need for a framework to regulate the affairs of state-owned companies.

The forum will continue on Tuesday (tomorrow).

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th,  2015.