ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: The Clean Drinking Water Initiative, a project initiated by former president Gen Pervez Musharraf, is yet to take off, although its cost has risen several times since it was planned in 2003.

The project came under discussion at the meeting of National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, presided over by its Chairman Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

According to the audit brief presented to the committee, it was initially approved as a project of the Ministry of Environment. It envisaged setting up 121 water purification plants at a cost of Rs115 million in the 2003-04 financial year. During the following year, the number of plants was raised to 445 plants and the cost was increased to Rs495.50 million.

The project was haphazardly planned without a proper feasibility study and the money was released to the Ministry of Environment, ignoring the fact that there was no infrastructural support for completing this kind of work, an official who attended the meeting told Dawn.

After couple of years, the project was handed over to the Ministry of Industries and Special Initiatives which revised it and raised its cost to a whopping Rs1 billion, with the number of water filtration plants revised down to 406.

Although money for the plants has been released, but records presented to the PAC showed that 327 purification plants had been installed, of which 251 were operational, 76 non-operational and 79 were in various stages of construction.

According to audit officials, under the PC-I of the project a mechanical guarantee for the plant was to be obtained from manufacturer-contractor from the date of the commissioning of the plant, but this was not done. Similarly, the operational and management cost of the plants was included in the cost of the project, but it was not included in the contracts signed with successful bidders.

The audit report also raised objections about selection of sites for 59 filtration plants, where there were no electricity or water connections.

The audit officials also informed the PAC that out of the seven samples from various locations sent to the National Institute of Health Laboratory to determine whether the water from the plants was fit for human consumption, three were found not fit for drinking.