ISLAMABAD, March 22: President Pervez Musharraf has directed the ministry of industries, production and special initiatives to remove ‘various bottlenecks’ in its countrywide plan to provide safe and clean drinking water to all the citizens by December.

Sources said on Thursday that the ministry had finalised its revised plan in the light of the president’s directive to set up 409 water purification plants across the country after removing the bottlenecks.

After transfer of the ‘clean drinking water initiative’ to the ministry of industries, production and special initiatives from the ministry of environment on Oct 12 last year, extensive consultations were held with the provincial and districts governments and other stakeholders to remove different problems identified in the plan.

In the revised plan, the ministry conceded that “the element of transparency was not ensured” previously. It revealed that only three bidders participated in the process, one of them withdrew and the remaining two were given the contract.

The consultative process with the provinces indicated that the number of sites where plants were required to be installed was 451 but work orders for 409 sites had been issued. Alternative sites for 114 places where ‘no contamination had been reported would be additional and Rs670 million would be spent on the project.

According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Health and the Korea International Cooperation Agency, a majority of the population in the country is exposed to the hazard of drinking unsafe water.

Water supplies in all the major cities were found microbiologically unfit for human consumption.