17 April 2005	Sunday	07 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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LAHORE, April 16: Rajput Supreme Council Chairman Rao Khalid has said that the poor will be deprived of clean drinking water facility as a result of the privatization of Wasa.

Speaking at a meeting of the Lahore Water Action Committee at Waris Road here on Saturday, he said there was no justification for considering the privatization for covering up the operational losses as water supply rates had been raised by 80 per cent only last year.

The privatization would result in further increase in rates and force the poor to get their water supply connections severed.

ECO Watch Trust Chairman Imran Haider said the government should desist from experimenting the water supply privatization as all such experiments undertaken in different countries of the world had invariably resulted in increase in charges and failed.

Khurram Fayyaz said there was no justification for commercializing the water supply as it was a fundamental human right and the state was responsible for ensuring its availability to all citizens.

Imran Ahmed, Shaukat Kharal and Chaudhry M.Anwar said the privatization would make clean water a luxury for the poor and compel them to drink polluted water.