KOHAT, Dec 1: The eight-kilometre-long main canal, which supplied water to the British era dairy farm from the Kohat Toi, has turned into a breeding place for mosquitoes, cockroaches and mice as the effluents from the newly-constructed fertilizer plant remains stagnant there.

Earlier, the municipal committee used to flush the canal by releasing water from the Kohat Toi, but after covering it and turning it into a sewerage line, water has been standing in it for the last one year.

The MC staff has been unable to clean all its peripheries and the main line for the last so many years through which also passes the drinking water pipelines.

Sometime ago the administration which got Rs4400 million from the Asian Development Bank for the replacement of all broken water pipelines, resulting in mixing of sewage with the potable water, but it abandoned the project half way due to shortage of funds.

The digging for laying the Sui Gas pipelines in Kohat also added to the problem and now the underground pipes had been rendered naked, damaged and streets in dilapidated condition.

The MC officials when contacted in this regard said that with the implementation of the new government plan the development schemes and the repair work had been stopped for obvious reasons. The MC had devised a strategy for replacing the pipes and repair the streets but with the change of the system modifications at a large scale had been made in the original plan.

In some areas the district assembly had stopped the repairs of the streets for which the SNGP had provided funds. These funds had been diverted to other heads whereas the MC staff was not able to enforce its priorities.