The Aab Pak Authority has started work on the Punjab government's plan to provide clean drinking water to villages in addition to urban areas.
At least 1,000 villages will be provided clean water in phases under the plan.
In the first phase, expected to cost Rs5 billion, the work for Chak Jumra area's 16 villages has been assigned, while the estimates for Phase II have been submitted for approval.
The inauguration of the scheme is expected in February by the chief minister or governor of Punjab.
Clean water supply was earlier limited to urban areas but the present government has involved the Aab Pak Authority along with the Water and Sanitation Agencies (Wasa) for providing the service in villages across Punjab. Wasa Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the authority.
Various methods will be adopted to supply water to the 1,000 villages across Punjab, including the suburbs of Lahore, in which about five million people live.
The Phase I is being started from Chak Jumra where water will be supplied to the villages from canals by constructing tanks.
Residents of 50 villages in the tribal areas of Dera Ghazi Khan will be supplied water from ponds by installing hand pumps. Water will be supplied to villages of Renala Khurd after installing treatment plants for canal water.
Similarly, a separate system will be adopted to supply water to villages in Rawalpindi division.
Private firms have been registered to provide water to the villages and the work has been assigned through tenders. Initially, water will be supplied to 16 villages in Chak Jhumra area through pipelines after constructing tanks, which will cost Rs160 million. In Phase I, drinking water will be provided through filtration plants in the suburbs of Lahore, including Nishtar, Wagah, Ravi and Samnabad Zones, where water is not being supplied by Wasa.
The work near Lahore is expected to start by June 2021. Thirteen packages have been prepared for the supply of water under the scheme. Water will be provided to villages in southern, central as well as northern Punjab.
Phase II of the scheme is estimated to cost Rs4.5 billion, under which water will be supplied through 186 tubewells, pumps and tanks in the villages. The PC-1 has been prepared and sent to the authorities concerned so that the approval of Phase II can be obtained. As soon as Phase I is completed, the work on Phase-II will be started.
The authority plans to complete the project of providing clean water to 1,000 villages in about two and a half years.
Aab Pak Authority CEO Syed Zahid Aziz said while talking to The Express Tribune that for the first time in history the present government had prepared a plan to provide clean water to the residents of villages across Punjab like the urban population.
Work on the plan is going on in full swing. The work of Phase I starting from Chak Jhumra has been assigned to a private firm selected through tenders.
The CEO said Phase-I will be completed in about a year and work will start in other villages as soon as Phase II is approved. The Punjab government is trying to complete both phases in two years and clean water will be available to all residents of the villages, he added. He said the project would reduce water-borne diseases and arsenic contamination in the villages.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2020.
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