Govt sets its eye on water treatment for the city

Punjab govt signs Rs11 billion agreement to establish water treatment plant in Lahore.

LAHORE: The Punjab government has signed an agreement to establish a water treatment plant in Lahore at the cost of Rs11 billion, Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and Urban Development Zafar Iqbal told the Punjab Assembly yesterday.

Iqbal said the government had hired a French company to do the feasibility study and 70 per cent of the project’s cost would be borne by France in the form of a soft loan. He said that another water treatment plant would be set up at Babu Sabu with the cooperation of Japan. He said that these two plants would cater to the entire population of Lahore.

The parliamentary secretary apprised the House that work on three sewage projects, costing Rs3,155 million, was underway in Lahore. He said that the projects would be completed by 2013. He said that 13 other projects to improve the sewage system are under consideration and their estimated cost is Rs1,324 million. Iqbal said that work on these projects would most likely begin in 2011.

MPA Chaudhry Asadullah had raised questions about the sewage system in Lahore. Legislators had pointed out that the mixing of sewage water with drinking water was causing health problems in Lahore.

Zafar Iqbal, in reply to a question raised by Seemal Kamran, said that the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) had 706 kilometres (kms) of water pipelines that needed to be changed, of which 532 kms had been replaced at the cost of Rs678.346 million while the remaining 174 kms would be changed in the current fiscal year.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member Anjum Naveed said that Zafar Iqbal had not prepared before coming to the session as Iqbal had not been able to give satisfactory answers. The Speaker told Naveed, “You would have done the same had you been in his place.” Nawaz said that in PP-145 at least 3 Wasa wells were not working while Iqbal had said that all 16 wells were functioning properly. The Speaker asked the parliamentary secretary to check the matter out.

In a reply to a question raised by MPA Qamar Islam, Iqbal said that around 400 plazas and buildings under the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) were not in accordance with the approved plans. He said that this was due to some corrupt LDA officials who protected the violators in return for bribes and that an inquiry was underway in the Anti Corruption Department.

Amendments in the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab 1997 were also moved in the assembly.

Senior Minister Raja Riaz speaking on a point of order said that India had made more progress than Pakistan because dictatorship hadn’t marred the democratic process. He said that the Establishment was trying to derail the democratic process. “Any attack on the President will be considered an attack on the parliament. We will cut the finger that is raised against the Parliament,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2010.