LAHORE, Oct 21: The Water and Sanitation Agency’s arrears are increasing because of its weak recovery system.

“The field staff and officers seem to have failed to collect the revenue from their areas,” Wasa Managing Director Dr Javed Iqbal said at a meeting here on Tuesday.

Directing Deputy Managing Director (FA&R) Asif Qureshi and Director (Revenue) Syed Azhar Hussain Shah to devise a strategy in this regard, Iqbal said that officers should be given recovery targets. He said that annual increments of the recovery staff not meeting the targets should be stopped. Defaulters should be notified to clear their arrears within 15 days and legal proceedings should be initiated against them if they fail to comply with the order.

The number of illegal water connections in Lahore is 4,000 to 5,000, the MD said and directed his subordinates to bring these connections into the Wasa billing net.