The World Water Day passed with fanfare, but the fact remains unchanged that the majority of the people of the province could not get clean water.
The government has spent billions of rupees to ensure that people have access to clean drinking water.
Water supply situation is slightly better in Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi than what the situation is like in other cities of Punjab. In those areas where clean water is not available people are suffering from various stomach and skin diseases by using contaminated water.
The Punjab government has now started constructing Pak Centres for providing clean water to about 15 million people living in more than two-and-a-half thousand villages through the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority.
In Lahore, a city of 12 million people, WASA is providing 70 gallons of water per capita to eight million people only while the rest of the population is getting water from other sources.
WASA has a budget deficit of Rs3 billion. About 6,000 kilometres of water supply lines in Lahore are rotten in which 30% to 40% of the lines have been replaced and the rest are being worked on. Complaints of clean drinking water supply are on the rise due to rotten pipelines. Similarly, in Lahore city, in the areas of villages, private schemes, cantonment boards, railways, other government and private institutions are ensuring water supply themselves instead of relying on WASA.
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Complaints of contaminated water are common here too. Complaints of Wasa arsenic in Lahore have been largely solved but the contaminated water could not be eliminated completely.
The main reason is lack of government resources that is why people are getting polluted water at public and private levels. The Punjab government has now assigned the responsibility of providing clean water to two-and-a-half thousand villages in different divisions to Pak Authority. Where people do not have access to clean water, now Pak Authority has started work on setting up 1235 Pak Centers at a cost of about Rs4.5 billion in cities and especially in villages.
Phase-I will provide clean drinking water to more than seven million people.
Phase-I will end in June 2022 while in Phase-II more than 110 centers will be constructed at a cost of Rs5 billion for which tenders have been invited and work on this project will start soon.
The project is expected to be completed by June 2023, providing water to eight million people. Thus, in both phases, about 15 million people will benefit from drinking water.
In this regard, Chairman of Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority Zahid Aziz said that they were speedily completing projects to provide clean drinking water to the residents of most of the villages of Punjab at a much lower cost than in previous periods.
Lahore WASA MD Muhammad Tanveer said that they were using all available resources to provide clean water to the people. He said that under the order of the Supreme Court, water samples were tested in which 97% of the water proved to be correct.
He maintained that they combined chlorinators with tube-wells to provide clean water to the people. Tube-well water was perfect.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 24th, 2022.
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