TAXILA: The establishment of two filtration plants for provision of clean drinking water to two localities in Hassanabdal proved just eyewash as the facilities have not been made functional even after their inauguration 10 days ago.

The filtration plants were inaugurated by Adviser to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam on August 10. These plants were established at a cost of Rs2 million and the project was executed through the provincial public health engineering department.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Mr Aslam had said the filtration plants would rid residents of a housing colony and Sakheenagar of waterborne diseases.

Sources said in one of the two plants the contractor had made a 180ft deep bore but could not reach water.

At the time of its inauguration, the contractor had filled the tank of the plant with water through a tanker.

Sadia Bibi, a resident of the housing colony, told this correspondent that the residents were happy after inauguration of the filtration plant as the water supply scheme in the area had almost collapsed. She said after waiting for 10 days they were now disappointed as there was no water in the filtration plant.

Shahzad Mughal, another resident, said they were getting contaminated water due to faulty supply system.

The dwellers were hopeful that after inauguration of the filtration plant they would be getting clean drinking water.

Former member Punjab Assembly Shahwaiz Khan termed the opening of the filtration plants another drama of the PTI government.

He said the PTI leaders were inaugurating incompleted as well as semi-complete projects.

He said the construction of Rescue 1122 building was put on the back burner by the PTI government just because it was initiated during the PML-N government.

When contacted, Dr Khurram, coordinator for Amin Aslam, said at the time of execution of the project it was decided that these plants would be operated by mohalla committees.

He said despite passage of weeks, these committees failed to operate and run the plants. He said now the operation of these plants has been handed over to the municipal committee and the company which executed the project was imparting training to the nominees for running them.

He said as soon as the training completes, these plants would be opened for the public from next week.

Responding to a question about non-provision of water to one of the plants, he said the electric meter was installed one day before the inauguration and proper pumping was not carried out which delayed the filling of the tank.

Mohsin, a sub-engineer of the public health engineering department, said the department had completed the construction and installation of the filtration plants as per schedule.

He said delay in installation of electricity meters, not owning the filtration plants by the respective committees and deployment of staff by the municipal committee led to delay to make the plants operational.

It is expected that these plants would be made functional next week, he added.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2020