4,000 water filtration plants in Punjab: CM

[Naveed Yaseen]

CHIEF Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has said that provision of potable water to the masses is a priority of the government and solid measures are being taken for this purpose.

He said that besides rehabilitation of water supply schemes, new schemes were also being started which would be completed expeditiously to supply safe water to people. He said installation of water filtration plants at the union council level would soon start under a phased programme with the cooperation of the federal government and 4,000 such plants would be installed in the province. He was addressing a meeting regarding water supply in rural areas at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat here Friday.

Mr Shahbaz issued instructions for setting up the Water and Sanitation Regulatory Authority for Urban and Rural Areas for the provision of clean water to the masses. He said the unavailability of potable water in urban and rural areas was a serious problem and there was a need for prompt measures for its solution. He said due to the use of contaminated water in urban and rural areas, communicable diseases were spreading rapidly.

He said as compared to the cities, the condition of water supply schemes in the rural areas was pathetic, which he had personally observed during his visits.

The chief minister directed the officials concerned to consult public representatives regarding new water supply schemes. He said an agreement had been reached with the companies concerned for installation of water filtration plants which would soon start in the province with the cooperation of federal government. He said it would be up to Assembly Members to use the grants allocated to them for health and water supply keeping in view the needs of the people of their respective areas. He said legislation would also be introduced for improvement of water supply system and Water and Sanitation Regulatory Authority would also be constituted in this regard. He warned the officials that action would be taken if any scheme was not completed within the stipulated period.

Earlier, the Public Health secretary, while giving a briefing regarding water supply schemes in rural areas, informed the meeting that a sum of Rs 6,274 million would be spent on the rehabilitation of 1,305 water supply schemes while Rs5,785 million would be utilised during the current fiscal year on the improvement and completion of 852 rural water supply schemes. He said the Punjab government was paying full attention to the projects of water supply in rural areas. Members National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Engineer Khuram Dastagir Khan, Members Provincial Assembly Malik Waris Kalloo, Mumtaz Jajja, Rana Abdul Rauf, Rana Muhammad Afzal, Col ® Naveed Iqbal Sajid, Tanvir Aslam Malik, Ali Noor Niazi, Ramzan Siddique Bhatti, the Planning and Development chairman, Local Government secretary as well as senior officers of the departments concerned were present.

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