Rural water filtration project delayed

Deadline passed in 2021 amid lack of funds

LAHORE:

A project to supply clean water to the residents of cities and villages across Punjab at a cost of Rs6.5 billion has been delayed for almost two years due to lack of timely decisions and release of funds.

Officers concerned say 85 per cent of the first phase of the project has been completed and preliminary work for the second phase has begun.

Under the plan, the clean water facility will be provided in 1,200 villages to ensure the health of the residents.

According to sources, 55 companies were formed for the clean water scheme by the previous government, so far 115 filtration plants have been installed.

After the previous PTI government came to power, it formed an authority to provide clean drinking water to the people across the province.

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The Punjab government has provided clean water in the villages of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan with filtration plants, tube wells, canal water and other resources.

Under the scheme, 1,538 centres were planned for providing clean water to people. The construction of 977 water centres in the villages was assigned to contractors, which is still ongoing. The deadline of December 31, 2021 had been set to complete the project but it could not be completed within the stipulated period due to lack of funds and other reasons, including alleged disinterest of the officers concerned.

About 85% of the project has been completed after two years, while the clean water facility will be made available to about 7.6 million people after the completion of both phases.

So far, 799 water filtration plants have been installed, while work on 178 is under way.

In the second phase, Rs1 billion has been released so far for providing clean water to villages in nine divisions.

Aab Pak Authority Chief Executive Officer Syed Zahid Aziz told The Express Tribune that the project of providing clean drinking water to the residents of the villages had been launched on the pattern of the urban population.

He said the first phase of the project was in its final stages and 85% of the work had been completed.

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The CEO said the Punjab government had saved millions of rupees in the project.

He said water had been supplied to the centres from tube wells and hand pumps for filtration, which would benefit millions of people.

He said work had also been started on Phase Two of the project.

Zahid Aziz said the authority had received Rs1 billion, with which big water filtration centres would be built for more than 1,500 villages.

He said bigger filtration centres would now be built with more capacity so that more people would benefit from them.

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Despite the tall claims of the government to ensure the provision of clean drinking water in the province, a project initiated toward the goal has been hit with delays because of the non-serious attituede of the authorities concerned.

Even after a year of its formation, the Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority – which is responsible for ensuring the provision of clean water across the province – has remained dysfunctional.

The authority could also not have an office building because the finance department has not provided any funds for its establishment.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2023.