November 27, 2006	Monday	Ziqa'ad 5, 1427

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LAHORE, Nov 26: Federal Industries Minister Jehangir Tareen is meeting representatives of local government departments of all provinces in Islamabad on Monday (today) to assess as to why the Clean Drinking Water for All programme is proving a failure despite the federal government’s earnest desire to make it a success.

Under the programme launched last year, filtration plants at one selected site in every district, tehsil and union council are to be installed by next year at a cost of around Rs8 billion.

The project was initially given to the federal environment ministry for implementation. But, the prime minister recently got annoyed with the implementation speed and handed over it to the industries ministry.

“Out of the total required 144 plants in Punjab tehsils, only 115 plants have been installed so far. And, ironically, more than half of them are either not functioning altogether or found leaking. It indicates failure of the project launched without assessing its financial and functional viability,” official sources said here on Sunday.

According to them, the plants would have to be installed, one each in every union council, in the last leg of the project by next year. “We had sent related PC-Is to the federal government in June this year, but are still awaiting an approval,” they said.

They said the situation in other provinces was even worse, adding that Punjab, despite the shortcomings, was far ahead of them.

The sources said a majority of the filtration plants being installed by private companies in the province were not properly functioning because these firms did not have any previous experience of civil works. “They are only giving technical support which is not enough to run the plants,” they said.

They doubted the availability of clean water even after the installation of the plants because, they said, the government needed to address other factors responsible for polluting water.

“In my view, majority water pipelines are rusted. And one cannot ensure that the water from the filtration plants will retain its purity after passing through these broken or rusted pipelines,” a senior official said.

He said shallow drilling of tube-wells was another major reason for the supply of contaminated water. According to a WHO report, the water found 500ft below the ground level was fit for human consumption.

“There is no bacteria in water being supplied in Lahore’s GOR-I because it is being pumped out from 500ft below the ground level. The problem of deformity of bones because of consumption of contaminated water in Pattoki was resolved by providing clean water to people through deep drilling of tubewells,” he said.

Sewage was being disposed of untreated in rivers and canals. Factories too were discharging untreated effluents, contaminating not only soil but also subsoil water, he said. And no filtration plant could do the needful in the presence of such enormous problems, he added.

Besides, no one was in the habit of having tested the quality of water. And if one wants to do so, there was no laboratory to check the quality. “Installing treatment plants without addressing these issues is like treating cancer with aspirin,” he said.

According to the plan, the federal government will bear the maintenance cost of all treatment plants for three years of their installment. But, during this period, the local councils will pay their electricity bills and depute staff to run them. They would ultimately take over the plants after the expiry of the three-year term.

The poor financial health of many a district, tehsil and union councils could bar them from even providing the minimum support to the programme, he apprehended.