WASA’s tube well operators unpaid for seven months

FAISALABAD:

As many as 114 Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) tube well operators have not received wages for seven months. 

Muhammad Akram, a tube well operator, told The Express Tribune on Wednesday that the Wasa had recruited 114 tube well operators on daily wage basis under the Water Supply and Sewerage Project in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). He said, “None of the tube well operators have received salaries since January. When we asked the Wasa authorities to pay us our salaries, we were told that project funding had ended.”

Akram said that the authorities told them that they had requested the city government for funds, but had not received any so far. “The Wasa has not made any alternative arrangements to ensure our salaries either,” he said.

“We will launch a protest demonstration if we don’t receive our salaries before Eid,” he said.

When contacted, Wasa Director Muhammad Ashraf said that the JICA had provided funds for the project but they had been used. “We are faced with a severe shortage of funds, which is why the tube well operators have not been paid,” he said, “The Wasa is trying to arrange for funds.”

Ashraf said that they would try to make sure that Wasa’s daily wage employees and all tube well operators were paid before Eid.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2013.