LAHORE, July 25: The government will spend Rs6.5 billion this year on a plan to provide safe drinking water to 90 per cent population of the province by 2010, Punjab Public Health Engineering Minister Sardar Hassan Akhtar Mokal said on Wednesday.

Addressing a meeting to review progress on water supply projects in Gujrat district, the minister said that 85 per cent of the population in 500 urban centres and 55 per cent of people in 30,000 villages had access to safe drinking water through water supply schemes. Water supply schemes were still being developed in 20,000 rural areas, he added.

Mokal said that water supply schemes worth Rs462 million had been approved for Gujrat. He said that Rs6.931 million had been allocated for extension of water supply schemes in Asghar Colony and Sultanpura, Rs4.227 million for Mohalla Latif Shah, Model Town and Railway Colony and Rs11.036 million for Kharian City.

He said that Rs10 million would be spent on water supply schemes in Lala Musa. The minister said that 755 community water supply schemes had been initiated in barren and brackish areas at a cost of $71.4 million.