Hyderabad’s water agency loses electricity over unpaid bills

Power supply to 98 water agency connections was discontinued on Thursday.

HYDERABAD: Perhaps a taking cue from public utilities in Karachi, Hyderabad’s power and water companies are now at each other’s throats over payments. Meanwhile, water is drying up in the city’s taps and sewage pools are getting knee deep in some downtown areas, as power supply to all Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) connections were disconnected on Thursday. A total of 3,319 electricity connections at public as well as private sector organisations has been disconnected for over 70 hours.

The water agency is being financially squeezed on two fronts, firstly by the 3,000 employees that it hasn’t paid in six months, and secondly by the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), to which it owes millions in unpaid bills. Wasa and its parent organisation, the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) collectively owe Rs2.74 billion to the power company. Unpaid electricity bills, in fact, appear to be accounting for the single largest chunk of the Rs2.95 billion that the two government agencies have in liabilities.

For residents of Hyderabad, this is the third time in the last four months that they have experienced water shortage and drainage problems. The sanitation agency supplies up to 60 million gallons of water every day. A financial crunch at the agency also appears to have left a mark on its filtration activities as well. It emerged during a court hearing in August that the agency’s chlorination plant, sludge pumps and other equipment at its main filtration plant were out of order. Lab results confirmed that people were being supplied water with a high level of organic matter and turbidity.

The water agency collects nearly Rs20 million in the form of utility charges from customers every month, which is about half of its expenditures, claimed the agency’s managing director Saleemuddin Ahmed. Despite low revenue collection, the agency claims that various provincial government departments owe it more than Rs7 billion in the form of unpaid bills.  “We keep asking the Sindh government to clear arrears in the public interest,” said Ahmed. The agency has sought an “urgent” release of Rs150 million so that it could pay salaries and bills.

The power utility, meanwhile, was unimpressed by the water agency’s pitiful financial condition. “The chief minister had approved a summary three months ago for paying Rs1,048 million to Hesco [on the sanitation agency’s behalf]. However, [we have been paid] only Rs300 million so far,” said Hesco spokesman Sadiq Kubar. He also confirmed that the power company had disconnected electricity supply to 98 HDA and Wasa connections. The water agency’s managing director, however, claimed that the power company had been paid Rs525 million in two installments.

Revenue collection

Ironically, the power company disconnected supply to the government and private sector organisations when federal water and power department secretary Nargis Sethi was in town. “Officials [overseeing] recovery rates of less than 100 per cent will face action,” she warned while chairing a meeting at Hesco’s head office on Friday. She said it was necessary for power companies to optimise their own revenue collection.

At a separate meeting on the same day, Hyderabad commissioner Ahmed Bux Narejo asked the water agency to improve its revenue collection.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd,  2012.