Rawal Town Nazim Sheikh Rashid Shafique has said that 41 filtration plants have been installed in different union councils of the Town with the cost of Rs 50 million and handed them over to the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) for operation.
"We have installed these filtration plants for provision of pure drinking water to people and save them from water-borne diseases", said Shafique, while addressing the Rawal Town Assembly.
He rejected the statements of Wasa Managing Director Islamul Haq about faulty filtration plants and supply of contaminated water, saying these filtration plants were handed over to Wasa, the maintenance was Agency's responsibility. Wasa has failed to maintain these filtration plants so that its high-ups have started blame game to shift their responsibility on TMA, he added.
Meanwhile, the opposition leaders in Rawal Town Assembly, including Nasir Mir and Asad Mughal have also criticised Wasa for its failure in water supply to various areas of Rawalpindi. They said that without any proper water supply Wasa has increased water charges by 25 percent arbitrarily.
They said the people are being forced to use contaminated water being supplied by Wasa while on the other hand they were served inflated bills. Opposition leaders have asked the Rawal Town Nazim to start campaign against Wasa otherwise they would protest against the Agency.
Wasa Managing Director Islamul Haq, in a statement, had stated that about 14 out of 46 filtration plants were installed in Rawal Town and supplying contaminated water while the remaining 30 are yet to be made functional.
He said these water plants were installed in Rawal Town in 2003-04 and during a recent inspection a Wasa team had found bacteria in the water of these plants. The TMA had installed all these plants and handed them over to Wasa, adding that the Agency was only operating these plants, he said. He said that all the faulty plants had been closed and that Wasa required Rs 4.4 million to repair them.
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