HYDERABAD, April 14: District Nazim Dr Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman has said that the district government is giving priority to providing water to villages around the city. He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a water supply scheme for villages around Gulshan-i-Kohsar, Ganjo Takkar and Latifabad taluka here on Wednesday.

The nazim said that the scheme had been completed at a cost of Rs6.944 million and would supply water to villages of Jumman Chhutto, Chandan Kolhi, Yousuf Panhwar, Nabi Bux Panhwar, Bero Panhwar, Allah Bux Brohi and Habib Farm and added that the facility would also be extended to three other villages.

He said that the district government had handed the project over to the Latifabad Taluka municipal administration and now it was its responsibility to operate and maintain it.

Dr Rafiquzzaman said that earlier, the area people used to get water from some other watercourses which were three to six kilometres away from their villages. Referring to the demands raised by the villagers, he said that a proposal for construction of a 10-kilometre road in the area was under consideration.

He said that work was in progress to provide water supply facility to 42 suburban villages of Qasimabad taluka, 19 of Latifabad taluka and 23 backward localities of City taluka at a cost of Rs70 million. He said that first phase of the scheme would be completed in three months and second and final phase next year.

The district nazim said that the district government was considering steps to improve services of the Water and Sanitation Agency and important decisions in this regard would be taken in a forthcoming meeting of the Hyderabad Development Authority working committee.

The Executive Engineer, Local Government Department, Mohammad Ali Waryah, while briefing about the water supply scheme of the Ganjo Takkar area, said that it had a storage capacity of one million gallons which would be sufficient for 21 days in case of a water shortage.

He said that 60,000 gallons of water per day would be supplied to the villages having a population of about 5,000 people. The taluka nazims, Abdul Jabbar Khan (Latifabad) Noor Mohammad Shoro (Qasimabad) Haji Moinuddin Shaikh (City) HDA Director-General Ali Ahmed Lund, Communication and Works EDO Habibur Rehman Memon and others were present at the inaugural ceremony.

MEDICAL CHECKUP: Meanwhile, the district nazim constituted eight medical teams, one for each taluka, to conduct medical checkup of students of government primary schools. He took the decision at a meeting about educational affairs of the district held at his office here on Tuesday.