Capital may get a WASA imminently

Asad Umar directs CDA to make preparations

ISLAMABAD:

To improve the supply of water to the city, manage sewage better and enhance sanitation, an authority along the lines of Wasa will be created in the federal capital.

This was disclosed by the Federal Planning Minister Asad Umar on Thursday while chairing a meeting to review the progress made on the projects of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Umar said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided in principle to set up a water and sanitation agency (WASA) in the federal capital along the lines similar agencies are operating in major metropolises of the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) provinces.

In this regard, Umar directed the CDA to make all preparations and lay the groundwork to complete this task at the earliest.

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On the transfer of four departments from the elected Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) to the CDA, the minister said that it was an important step.

He directed the relevant departments to prepare their action plans within a week.

The minister hoped that by repatriating departments from IMC to the CDA, the long-standing issues of the capital will be soon resolved.

"In light of directives from Prime Minister Imran Khan, every effort will be made to make Islamabad a model city," Umar said.

Departments start work upon repatriation

Long panned for failing to adequately address civic issues while under the elected administration of the city, four civic work departments have started working almost immediately after they were repatriated to the civic authority of the federal capital.

In a statement issued by the CDA on Thursday, the authority claimed that civic works in the federal capital have gained momentum after four departments of the authority, which had been devolved to the elected Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC), was repatriated to the CDA.

The authority said that they had devised a comprehensive plan of action to revive these ‘stalled’ departments.

In the first stage, the Machine Pool Organisation (MPO) - which accounts for heavy machinery owned by the civic authority - started carpeting work on Islamabad Expressway and I-series sectors. An asphalt mixing plant of MPO has been made functional for the purpose. The plant can produce 500 to 600 tonnes of material per day. It had been closed for several months due to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) and because the IMC lacked sufficient funds.

Simultaneously, specially constituted teams of the CDA have started removing wild growth on green belts along the Constitution Avenue, Ninth Avenue, Srinagar Highway, Margalla Road and F-9 Park along with other roads in the city.

Among the other repatriated departments, a second shift has been started in the Sanitation department particularly in the markets and commercial areas.

Nullahs along Margalla Road are also being cleaned. Several vehicles of the department, which were lying in disrepair due to paucity of funds, are now being fixed for service.

The water supply wing has also “bolstered” its activities, plugging ten leakages in main water lines in different areas of the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2020.