October 2, 2003	Thursday	Sha’aban 5, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, Oct 1: The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has taken over partial charge of the maintenance of the newly-laid Asian Development Bank-funded water supply system from Khanpur Dam from the Project Management Unit (PMU), an official source said on Wednesday.

“Wasa on Tuesday took partial charge of the maintenance of the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project, the water supply system from Khanpur Dam, which had been completed three months ago”, he said.

The source said September 30 was the deadline for Wasa to start handling the complete maintenance of the water supply system. A few months ago, a row between the PMU and Wasa had emerged over the quality of the newly-laid water supply pipelines which had reportedly developed numerous leakages even during the testing period.

He said it was the same old row which had delayed the complete taking over of the project by Wasa from the PMU. The differences, he added, still existed between the PMU and Wasa. Publicly, however, the officials of both the organizations had denied the existence of any differences, the source said.

The Rs4,136 million project had been initiated in 1996 for replacing the decades-old rusty and damaged water pipelines in different parts of the city, including Shamsabad, Dhoke Kala Khan, Sadiqabad, Muslim Town, Afendi Colony, Khayaban-i-Sir Syed, Pirwadhai, Dhoke Hassu, Khurram Colony, Asghar Mall and Raja Bazaar.

The ADB had provided about 91 per cent of the total amount for the project through soft-term loans while the provincial government furnished the remaining 9 per cent.