Not a drop to drink: Capital’s broken-down water filtration plants under NA spotlight

A recent survey found most of them were supplying dirty water.

ISLAMABAD:

The poor quality of water being supplied from filtration plants across the capital caught the attention of the National Assembly on Monday.

MNAs Rai Hassan Nawaz Khan and Dr Raja Aamer Zaman drew the attention of the House through a joint call attention notice to dysfunctional filtration plants and also towards the unhygienic water they dispense.

A few days ago, Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) Water Supply Directorate in collaboration with the Central Engineering Laboratory’s Quality Control Cell had conducted a survey over quality of water being supplied by 37 filtration plants installed by the authority.



The report stated that the water supplied by 25 of the 37 plants was unhygienic, nine plants were dysfunctional, while only one filtration plant was found to be supplying clean water.

Responding to the call attention notice, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab informed that in 2012 the CDA awarded the contract of maintenance of water filtration plants to a private firm, but the firm did not maintain the plants in line with the agreement.

He said after the report, CDA, using its own resources, cleaned around 20 filtration plants, which are now supplying clean water.



About the action taken so far against the firm, the minister said CDA withheld the security amount deposited by the firm and a portion of the amount agreed to in the contract. After conducting an internal inquiry, CDA suspended the assistant director of Water Filtration Plant and served show-cause notices to other officials, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2013.