RAWALPINDI, July 31: The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) on Wednesday contested the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) report about malfunctioning of 40 filtration plants and said it will involve a third party to carry out a fresh survey in Rawalpindi.

Wasa managing director Mohammad Akram Soban in a press statement said the PCRWR report was not based on facts. He said there was a proper standard operating procedure (SOP) for obtaining water samples for testing.

“Samples are obtained from mini-filtration plants during operational hours, using sterilised equipment, including beakers and vessels etc. Otherwise, testing shall only yield false results and that is what happened in the instant case,” he contended.

He said the PCRWR should have coordinated with Wasa and the exercise conducted together in presence of a neutral third party so as to avoid any controversy about the report.

The Wasa chief, however, added that not all the faulty filtration plants mentioned in the report were operated by Wasa since most of them were either run by cantonment board or private operators.

About the mini-filtration plants, he said these were being monitored on a regular basis and the essential component like filter media, carbon, cartridges and ultraviolet lamps were replaced in presence of local notables with proper record entry in logbooks.

He said Wasa had already acquired the services of a highly qualified research officer who takes water samples on a regular basis and gets it evaluated through the Wasa laboratory established at Rawal Lake filtration plant.