Wasa in hot water

AAG says Wasa has been given Rs42 million for filtration plants.

LAHORE:

An Additional Advocate General (AAG) on Tuesday informed the Lahore High Court that Rs42 million had been transferred to the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) for installation of filtration plants. The court was also informed that Wasa had also started the process of installation of the filtration plants. The AAG made these submissions before Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry who was hearing responses to a suo motu notice and writ petitions against the supply of arsenic contaminated water to city residents. WASA’s counsel also placed on record a copy of a pre-qualification notice to contractors published in a local daily and sought time to import equipment for filtration plants, if it was not available in local market.

The petitioner-counsel contended that the supply of clean drinking water was the responsibility of the state. The court adjourned the matter until May 25. The LHC had taken suo motu notice on a news item which stated that the Environmental Protection Department had revealed that out of 392 Wasa tube-wells, 253 were supplying arsenic contaminated water posing serious health hazards to citizens.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2011.