FWO faults Wasa’s tubewell operations

LAHORE: The Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) is not satisfied with the manner in which the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) is operating the 69 tubewells it has recently installed across the city.

An FWO spokesperson told The Express Tribune that Wasa was neglecting the standard operating procedures laid down by the FWO. He said that since January 2010 (when the FWO handed over the tube wells to the Wasa), the FWO had on average received five to six breakdown complaints a day. “About 90 per cent of these complaints are about damage to the power supply, caused due to operators’ negligence,” he said.

Javed Iqbal, the Wasa managing director, rejected the statement as a baseless allegation. He said that the Wasa staff was following the standard operating procedures. He said that none of the tubewells handed over by the FWO had malfunctioned yet. This, Iqbal added, showed that the Wasa operators were performing their duties proficiently.

The spokesperson meanwhile said that in the wake of the excessive complaints, the FWO had conducted a survey of the tubewell sites and compiled a report. He said that the report, containing guidelines on how to operate the facilities and observations on Wasa staff’s negligence, had been sent to the agency.

The report that was made available to The Express Tribune mentions that the Wasa operators were often absent from duty. This, the report said, increased the risk of damage whenever the voltage fluctuated since no one was present to control the situation.

The report stated that instead of taking up the matter with the Wapda over voltage fluctuation in power supplied by the grid stations, the Wasa sub divisional officers (SDOs) had altered the settings on the control panel beyond permissible limit.

This had resulted in the frequent damage to the control panel itself.

The report further said that the tubewells were being run for longer than the design permitted.

This could affect the capacity of the wells and damage the screens, it added.

The report claimed that in some cases tubewell rooms were being used by the operators to wash their motorcycles.

The FWO guidelines had called for all operators to be regular employees, trained in the operating procedures. The Wasa, the spokesperson said, should arrange a mandatory training programme for its staff before deploying them on tubewell sites.

The FWO had recommended that the minimum educational qualification should be matriculation.

The FWO had warned that excessive and unscheduled power outages could cause the tubewell motors to burn out. This, it said, could only be avoided by ensuring that a well-trained operator was always present at the panel.

The guidelines recommended that the tubewell’s panel should be kept clean to enhance the life of the electrical components. Insects, lizards or rats could get stuck inside the panel and cause short circuiting, it had warned.

The provincial government had contracted out the installation of 69 tubewells to the FWO in August 2008.

The FWO started work in October 2008 by installing a 4-cubic-feet per second (cusecs) capacity tubewell at the Kashmiri Gate. It completed the project in January 2010. The last tubewell was set up in the Tibbi area.

The project was undertaken at a cost of Rs432 million. While the tubewells have been handed over to the Wasa for operations, the FWO is responsible for their maintenance for a one-year term.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2010.