ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: The Steering Committee of the Clean Drinking Water Project (CDWP) on Wednesday approved the release of Rs2 billion to the provinces for implementation of the CDWA project from current year’s allocation.

Chairing the first meeting of the Steering Committee, Federal Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives Jehangir Khan Tareen said the government was committed to provide clean drinking water to the people till December 31, 2007 under the Clean Drinking Water for All (CDWA) project.

He said involvement of the provinces and districts in the project as owner of the plants was necessary for effective implementation and working of the project.Giving details of the project, Mr Tareen said that in the first phase 6,500 water filtration plants would be installed in each union council across the country.

He said that CDWI (Clean Drinking Water Initiative) has been capped at 409 plants installed/in the process of installation and left-over 99 sites will be incorporated in CDWA.

It would be pertinent to mention that a total of about 509 plants were to be installed under CDWI in each Tehsil of the country.

It was decided in the meeting that provincial/regional and district governments being owner of the plants after their installation are responsible to provide: land for installation of plant, electricity/water connection and establishment of provincial implementation cells. The remaining operating and maintenance costs will be borne by the federal government for the initial three years.

It was also decided that a maintenance contract would immediately be signed with the concerned water companies for the plants installed under CDWI so that the provision of safe water is ensured.

The minister also told the meeting that a consultative workshop of all stake-holders will be held in the mid of March so as to devise a strategy for effective implementation and working of the CDWA project.

The meeting was also attended by Industries and Production Secretary Shahab Khawaja, secretary of Science and Technology, additional secretary of Finance Division, secretary of Planning and Development, chairman of Planning and Development, Punjab, additional chief secretaries of Sindh, the NWFP, Balochistan, Fata and AJK, Project Director Brig Javed Sikander and senior officials of the Ministry of Industries, Production and Special Initiatives.