Sindh CM orders immediate restoration of closed RO plants

Water supply to Tharis will resume in next three days

KARACHI: After consistently refuting the criticism by the opposition and civil society organisations over the installation of substandard Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants in Thar, the Sindh government finally accepted the failure of these plants and ordered their immediate restoration.



The opposition and civil society organisations have been criticising the provincial government for long for installing substandard RO plants, the majority of which had become non-functional soon after their installation. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, expressing his annoyance over the closure of 110 RO plants in Thar for want of funds, directed the finance department to release Rs336.7 million immediately and make the RO plants operational by today (Tuesday).

He issued these directives on Monday while presiding over a meeting to review the issue of RO plants at the CM House. The meeting was attended by provincial ministers Saeed Ghani, Imtiaz Shaikh, CM Advisor Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah, Planning and Development Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary Sajid Jamal Abro, Public Health Engineering Department Secretary Jamal Shah, officers of Sindh Coal Authority and senior officials of Pak Oasis - the contractors of the RO plants.

According to officials, the meeting was informed that there were 600 RO plants in Thar, of which 110 had been made non-functional due to lack of funds. "Why were funds not released?" CM asked the chief secretary. Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah said that the approval of the budget was the main reason behind the delay in releasing the funds. "The provincial assembly has passed budget at the end of last month and now the budget was being disbursed among the concerned departments," he said and added "the funds for RO plants would be released to the contractor within next three days. The CM ordered him to release Rs336.7m to the contractor immediately and also directed the contractor to make the RO plants functional and start providing water to the people of Thar from Tuesday.

The CM, talking to the contractor, said that they were working with Sindh government from last many years but just over release of funds they chose to close the RO plants. On this, the contractor told the CM that due to non-availability of funds they could not pay salaries to their employees since June 2018, therefore the employees had stopped working. At this, the CM said that the people of Thar have already suffered a lot due to drought and the only facility of sweet water made available to them by the government was also stopped. The provincial ministers, Syed Sardar Shah, Imtiaz Shaikh and CM Advisor Murtaza Wahab, who visited Thar last Sunday informed the CM that the closure of RO plants was a big issue and must be resolved immediately.



The CM was informed that there were 2,646 RO plants installed in different districts of the province, of which 2,261 were operational.

Excess payment to contractor

It was pointed out in the meeting that around Rs4 billion excess payment had been made to the contractor. At this, the contractor brushed aside the impression of over payment and said their dues were still outstanding against the government.

The contractor said that they had taken contracts of all three phases of RO plants installation and solarisation of some RO plants for Rs13.6b against which they had received Rs10.5b and Rs3b were outstanding against the government.

The CM directed the chief secretary to constitute a committee comprising representatives from the Sindh Coal Authority, Public Health Engineering and finance departments and reconcile all the expenditures and payments. "This reconciliation must be made within three days," he said. In case the issue of excess payment is not resolved, then well reputed auditors would be hired to audit all the payments made so far.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2018.