WASA vows universal service in city
The Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) has established a citizen liaison cell and awareness wing for the consumers.
WASA Managing Director Amir Aziz told media persons that the district administration had issued Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to the departments, under which WASA had set the aim to take to its facilities to the whole population of Faisalabad city by 2030. The deadline has been set by the United Nations and under the national environment quality standards framed by the federal ministry of climate change and the planning and development department.
The MD said that under the Suthra Punjab programme launched by the chief minister of Punjab, the citizen liaison cell had chalked out a plan and WASA teams had delivered five awareness lectures in schools and seminaries about community participation regarding rainwater harvesting, public cooperation, open manholes,environment-friendly initiatives and timely billing.
He said foreign-funded projects were being implemented successfully and the fact had been acknowledged be the governments of Japan, France and Denmark.
He said in reply to a question that the WASA customer relations centre had received 2,270 complaints of missing and broken manhole covers during the past two years, which had been redressed promptly.
He said the agency had replaced the concrete covers containing iron bars with those made of fibre glass that had no scrap value so they were not likely to be stolen.
The official said only 1% of the public complaints had been about damaged manhole covers, while all the others were of theft.
He said the thefts had been reported from Bilal Road and Jail Road, adding that the installation of CCTV cameras after the establishment of the Punjab Safe City Complex would help nab the the thieves.
There are 122,000 manhole covers in the area falling under Faisalabad WASA.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 9th, 2024.