RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has not released as yet Rs770 million bailout package to Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), forcing it not to launch new water supply schemes in last two quarters of 2018-19.

On the directive of the Punjab government, Wasa had sent a bailout report to Lahore in November.

The civic body had to pay Rs20 million Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) dues accumulated in last seven months. The amount included the bill of 421 tube-wells and filtration plants.

Delay forces agency to abandon water supply schemes in next two quarters

However, the agency paid Rs3.5 million to Iesco and promised to pay the rest of the amount within a month.

A senior Wasa official told Dawn that due the financial crisis Wasa had failed to launch any new scheme in the last six months.

“For now, there is no plan to launch new schemes in remaining days of the fiscal year,” he said.

He said Wasa had also failed to identify new schemes for next annual development programme.

“We had got three main projects approved in March 2018 including sewerage treatment plant, laying sewerage lines and water supply lines from Chahan Dam but the government did not release funds for these schemes,” he said.

He said that these schemes would now again be sent to Planning and Development Department so that it could include it in new annual development programme of Punjab.

He said the water supply lines in many areas needed to be replaced as the old ones had become rusty.

When contacted, Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Chairman Arif Abbasi, who is also Wasa chairman, said the provincial government had been requested to release Rs770 million bailout package.

He said he had sent a letter to the Punjab Housing and Urban Development Department to release the funds but to no avail.

“The provincial government will provide funds to the civic agency so it could pay the electricity bills and meet other administrative expenditures,” he said.

“The financial condition of the civic agency is improving due to austerity measures. The bill collection has improved in last two months but still a lot need to be done,” he said.

Mr Abbasi said to overcome the financial crisis, Wasa had streamlined the water supply system and brought more people into tax net.

He said that domestic and commercial billing system had been separated to avoid duplication. He said the survey had been launched to detect chronic defaulters of the agency.

Mr Abbasi said due to these efforts, the agency had been able to pay Rs3.5 million to Iesco and additional salaries to Christian employees on Christmas.

He ruled out any plan to increase the water charges as people were already facing problem and “we do not want to burden them”.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2019