Overcoming funds shortage: Water charges may be increased in Pindi

With the water and sanitation agency of Rawalpindi twice requiring financial assistance from the provincial government this year to pay staff and to carry out its annual pre-monsoon cleaning activity, a proposal has been put forward to increase water charges to address the issue of paucity of funds.

The proposal was put forward during the first-ever conference of chairmen and director generals of development authorities across the province. The conference was organised by the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) and was chaired by the Punjab Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Minister Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed.

Appreciating RDA Chairman Tariq Murtaza for the initiative, Rasheed said that the development authorities of the province should hold such conferences every two to three months to benefit from each other's experiences

Murtaza added that the authority will share its standard operating procedures (SOPs) and by-laws with other development authorities.

During the conference, amendments to the Private Housing Schemes Rules 2010, and a proposal to introduce similar rules in all developmental authorities was agreed upon.

In this regard, Rasheed decided to set up a committee, comprising three director-generals, three chairmen and a representative of the housing ministry secretary. This committee is expected to be notified later this week.

Apart from presenting suggestions, the conference of development authorities discussed legislation on illegal housing schemes to increase the revenue of development authorities apart from bringing illegal housing schemes and buildings under the tax net.

In light of these proposals, it was decided relevant rules will be finalised and they will be implemented after being ratified by the provincial cabinet.

To get address the massive revenue deficit faced by the water and sanitation agencies (WASAs), it was suggested to increase water charges.

“Drinking water available anywhere in the world is not as cheaply-priced as it is in Pakistan, which is why no one here has any sense of clean water which is why water is wasted," the housing minister lamented.

Published in The Express Tribune, Septe0mber 14^th, 2020.