Filtration plants turn into dens of stray dogs

Newly-installed filtration plants in Hassanabdal have turned into dens of stray dogs after the municipal corporation refused to take responsibility for their operation and maintenance, citing poor construction work by the public health department.

Former minister for environment Malik Amin Aslam had inaugurated four filtration plants worth millions of rupees in different areas of Hassanabdal.

These filtration plants were constructed by the public health department but it left them at the mercy of local people after the Hassanabadal Municipal Corporation refused to own and operate them, citing lopsided work on these water supply plants.

No department is now ready to own, maintain and operate these dysfunctional filtration plants which have turned into dens for dogs
after being shut down owing to unpaid electricity bills.

Hassanabdal Municipal Corporation Engineer Zulfikar Butt said that the municipal corporation has not handed over these filtration plants to any department due to poor construction work delay by the public health department.

“Therefore, we are not operating and maintaining these filtration plants,” he said.

Public Health Engineering Department SDO Muhammad Arshad Naz said that “we had asked the municipal corporation to take the charge of operation after completing all the work in 2021.

Instead, they formed a five-member committee that expressed dissatisfaction over the quality of work and rejected the project.”

He said that the Punjab government's clean water project has now indicated that it would assume control of these filtration plants.

A team has recently examined these filtration plants and compiled a report, he said adding that hopefully, they will take control of these filtration plants and restore their functionality within a month.

Meanwhile, locals said that though each plant cost a staggering Rs1.8 million, they did not benefit from the facility.

They said that public money may be wasted if these filtration plants were abandoned.

They said that higher authorities should take notice of the issue and run the filtration plants so that the people could get clean drinking water.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2022.