MULTAN, Sept 11: The city tehsil municipal administration has announced a relief package for aquifer charges which it has levied against the use of groundwater.

Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, tehsil Nazim Mian Faisal Mukhtar said the aquifer fee on most of the categories had been abolished while its rates would be negligible where it was to be charged.

He said the aquifer charges had been abolished on 10-marla schools, tea stalls, small eateries, timber shops, clinics, maternity homes, small-scale cottage industry and powerlooms comprising up to 50 units.

However, the Nazim said only those powerlooms would be exempted from the charges where dying, washing, sizing and finishing were not done. He said the aquifer slab had also been revised for performing the aforementioned operations.

Earlier, the aquifer fee for one to four powerlooms was Rs125 per month which now had been expanded up to 10 powerlooms.

Similarly, Rs500 per month were being charged from a unit comprising five to 20 powerlooms but under the revised slab, the same amount would be charged from a unit consisting of 11 to 50 powerlooms.

Furthermore, each of the ice factories working within the TMA limits would be charged Rs4,000 as sewerage fee and Rs625 per month as aquifer fee, he said.

The nazim said contract system for the recovery of Wasa dues had been done away with after confiscating surety money of Rs1.5 million deposited by the contractor. He said now the staff of the water and sanitation agency would recover the dues in collaboration with the union council Nazims.

He said the UC Nazims could permit the consumers to pay the Wasa dues in two instalments, besides withdrawal of the summons on 50 per cent payment of the outstanding amount at once and the rest within 15 days.

He said some 170,000 consumers took benefit of the Wasa services but only 60,000 to 70,000 paid its dues. He said an amount of Rs 2billion was needed to construct a complete sewerage system in the city. He hoped that the problem would be resolved within the next three or four years with the help of Asian Development Bank.

The Nazim said supply of clean drinking water to the residents of Multan had become a serious problem as compared to the sewerage issue because of the rotten and broken pipes. He claimed that the TMA was planning to replace all the water pipelines with new ones and install purification plants at three or four different points in the city.