Water and sanitation: Turkish expertise sought for infrastructure upgrades

LAHORE:

The government has engaged the Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration (ISKI) in a bid to improve water and sanitation infrastructure in major cities of the province, The Express Tribune has learnt on Thursday.

Adviser to Chief Minister Khawaja Ahmad Hassaan told The Express Tribune that an ISKI delegation had arrived for a series of meetings with the management of the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASAs) in Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Multan. They would also meet officials of the Housing and Physical Planning Department.

ISKI is a public body which manages the Istanbul water basin. It has an independent budget within the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality that provides water and sewerage facilities for 12 million people in a service area of 6,504 square kilometres.

Following a meeting with the ISKI delegation, Hassan said in 1980s, Istanbul had had water and sanitation problems similar to those the Punjab was facing in 2016.

“At that time, Turkey relied on ground water for its urban needs. Tube wells were the main source of drinking water. Later, they transformed their water and sanitation infrastructure and increased surface water use, which now makes up 97 per cent of drinking water resources in Istanbul.”

“Now, nearly all of Istanbul’s drinking water is supplied from dam lakes through accumulation of surface water. Drinking water dam catchment basins cover an extensive area. Nearly 53 per cent of the city is located within drinking water catchment basins. It is important to protect water sources from pollution in order to maintain a sustainable water management system.”

He said the Punjab government had set itself a target of 100 per cent treatment of waste water by the end of 2017.

“Untreated effluents cause groundwater contamination and pose a huge threat to aquatic life,” he said.

He said besides Turkey, several Chinese companies had expressed interest in improving water and sanitation infrastructure in the province.

“The government is considering several proposals to fix water-related problems permanently,” he said.

Hassaan said the government had addressed waste management issues by outsourcing cleaning and waste collection operations.

“The government will follow a similar model for improving sanitation infrastructure. Private companies will be awarded contracts through a bidding process,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2016.