RAWALPINDI: The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) on Tuesday launched an operation against service stations after their owners failed to install recycling plants on their premises.

On the directives of the Supreme Court, Wasa had asked 110 car service stations in the city areas to install recycling plants to avoid wastage of water.

Two months ago, the service stations had been given the deadline of Dec 15 to meet the condition. But action against the service stations was launched three days later on the pressure of the association of service stations on Tuesday.

“There are 110 car service stations in the city areas and only one of them managed to install a recycling plant. After the deadline, the service stations were to be sealed in case they failed to install the plants,” said a senior official of Wasa.

However, he said, there was no managing director or deputy managing director in the agency due to which the operation could not be launched on time.

He said junior officials were running the affairs of Wasa and they failed to seal all the service stations that failed to implement the SC direction.But Wasa spokesman Umer Farooq said action had been started and on the first day 16 service stations were sealed on Tuesday.

“It is difficult to close all the service stations within a day and we are working to implement the decision of the apex court and have formed teams for this purpose.”

He said the plant installed at a filling station on Murree Road near Liaquat Bagh was recycling water and the owner had termed it a good experience. He said Wasa officials inspected the plant and found it as per the specifications given by the civic body.

He said after the installation of the plant, the use of water at the service station had decreased drastically.

On the other hand, the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards failed to implement the decision of the SC and could not issue notices to the service stations.

A senior official of the RCB said the issue was not taken up in the board meeting. Neither elected members nor the bureaucracy wanted to issue notices to the service stations.

He said the local residents were being supplied water after a gap of two days while service stations on The Mall and Haider Road were wasting water without any check.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2018