Eight WASA workers die waiting for release of salaries

Union’s General Secretary said they demanded authorities put an end to mismanagement which had marred the agency

HYDERABAD:

Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) Mehran Workers Union has deplored that eight employees of HDA’s subsidiary Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) have died in the current year without being paid their salaries.

A meeting of the union, chaired by its President Muhammad Azam Rajput in Latifabad here on Sunday, said thousands of workers of WASA, which was responsible for water supply and drainage, had not received their salaries for the last nine months.

Rajput said WASA had adopted a practice of not releasing salaries to its workforce until it received some bailout package from the Sindh government once or twice a year.

The Union’s General Secretary Muhammad Aslam Abbassi said they demanded that the authorities should put an end to mismanagement which had marred the agency. He requested the Sindh Government to pay the water and drainage bills which were owed by its government departments.

The meeting also urged the Sindh government to devise a mechanism under which monthly salaries and pensions could be timely released to the employees of HDA and WASA.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2023.