MARDAN, Feb 10: The Public Health Engineering Department Mardan has more than Rs39 million outstanding water dues on retail consumers and non-recovery of this amount has been adding to financial difficulties of the department, officials said.

The department is operating 82 water schemes in Mardan. Monthly water tax rate for rural and urban areas is Rs40 and Rs80 respectively.

Despite low water rates, consumers never bothered to pay monthly bills, an official said, adding that some villages owed more than Rs1 million arrears to the department.

He said due to non recovery of these arrears, the department was facing financial problems but it had no statutory powers to recovery the money.