Poor water quality: CDA suspends assistant director

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Thursday suspended Filtration Plant Assistant Director Naveed Akhtar.

The civic agency also served show cause notices to other Water Management Wing officials for improper maintenance of filtration plants across the city.

An inquiry has also been ordered into a recent report compiled by the CDA’s Water Supply Directorate in collaboration with the Central Engineering Laboratory’s Quality Control Cell over the quality of water supplied by 37 filtration plants installed by the civic agency in Islamabad.

CDA Environment Member Ahsan Ali Mangi has been appointed as the inquiry officer and will submit a preliminary report within 48 hours.

The CDA report revealed that the quality of water supplied by 25 of the 37 plants was not up to the required hygiene standards. The report confirmed that only one filtration plant was supplying clean water, while nine plants were dysfunctional.



PTI to install water filtration plants

As the date for by-elections draws near, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced to kick off a campaign to install solar-based water filtration plants in the federal capital.

PTI candidate for NA-48 by-polls, Asad Umar, would inaugurate the joint venture of the PTI and the Bakhsh Foundation on Sunday.

Umar on Thursday inaugurated the party’s main election campaign office at Laraib Centre G-9 Markaz.

“Keeping in view the power shortage, we will be installing five such solar-supported water filtration plants in the capital which would function with solar-power,” Umar said while inaugurating the party’s campaign office.

Flanked by PTI leaders including Dr Wasim Shehzad, Rizwan Chaudhry, Adnan Randhawa, Amir Mughal and others, Umar said that the party had elaborate plans for uplifting and empowering the people of the capital city.

He said that his party was concerned about the plight of the low-paid and the working class who had been reeling under inflation.

“Water shortage and non-provision of safe drinking water were major issues facing the residents of the federal capital,” he said. “The provision of safe-drinking water to the residents of slums is also part of manifesto,” he said.

Umar said that the party’s women wing leader and MNA Nafisa Khattak had already installed around 25 water filtration plants in different parts of the capital including two in G-7 and three in G-6.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2013.