KARACHI: The Supreme Court-mandated commission on water and sanitation in Sindh on Monday directed the provincial authorities to immediately release Rs336 million to a contractor for the maintenance of the reverse osmosis (RO plants) installed across the province.

The commission, headed by retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim, also constituted a six-member committee to evaluate the cost spent on the installation of these RO plants as well as the amount to be spent on the maintenance.

The commission in its order said that with the consent of the participants, the provisional payment of Rs336m must be released by the finance department to Pak Oasis (contractor) forthwith subject to the final settlement in the light of outcome of the committee’s report.

It also told the secretary of the public health engineering department to immediately process the issue of provisional payment.

Forms six-member committee to evaluate the cost of installation of the plants

The commission further said that the committee should hold the meeting on Oct 31 in terms of the recommendations of the commission regarding the cost and extension in contract and come up with a report on all the issues within 15 days.

The committee is to be headed by secretary general for administration Abdul Wahab Soomro and finance secretary Najam Ahmed Shah, managing director of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board Khalid Mehmood Sheikh, additional director of the National Accountability Bureau Shahzada Imtiaz, project director of the PMU, PHE and RDD and Irshad Hussain of Pak Oasis as it members.

The commission had referred its recommendations regarding the RO plants and extension of contract to the Supreme Court and the same were approved by the SC.

The commission said that to implement its recommendations and in compliance with the SC order, a meeting was convened which was attended by all the stakeholders with the provincial law officer and they did not object to these recommendations made in the reference.

Treatment plant

The commission had also referred another matter pertaining to the proposed sewerage treatment plant (STP-V) on Mai Kolachi to the SC since there was a dispute over title/ownership of the land for the proposed treatment plant between the Karachi Port Trust and the provincial government.

The commission said that the SC after hearing the chairman of the KPT and provincial law officer held that “The land in question shall for all intents and purposes be exclusively used for the purposes of sewerage plant. However, if there is any dispute regarding ownership of or title to the land, KPT may approach the courts of ordinary civil jurisdiction to seek declaration of their ownership/title thereof or do so in pending suits (if any). Till the date this sewerage plant is effective and functioning, the land in question should not be put to any other use even if the ownership/title of the KPT thereof is acknowledged and declared by the court of competent jurisdiction”.

On the intervention of the commission, the KPT had committed to build the 100MGD treatment plant (STP-V) on Mai Kolachi.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2018