LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to prepare comprehensive water supply and sewerage master plans for 14 districts as well as IT reforms in all Water And Sanitation Agencies (WASAs) across Punjab.
Thus, on the directions of the Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the scope of WASA agencies will be further expanded to more districts. In the first phase, the districts included are DG Khan, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Sialkot, Hafizabad, Jhelum, Rahim Yar Khan, Jhang, Okara, Gujrat, Sheikhupura, Murree, and Nankana Sahib.
In this regard, Punjab Housing Secretary Noorul Amin Mengal on Saturday directed the Project Director Local Government through an official letter.
3 more districts to get ‘WASAs’
According to the letter, the Managing Directors of all WASA agencies have been designated as focal persons. The current water supply, sewerage, and storm water drainage systems will be assessed, and urban planning will be carried out keeping in view present and future requirements.
Moreover, special instructions have also been issued to design a planning framework considering climate change impacts and to prepare a phased financial plan for infrastructure improvement.
Furthermore, capacity-building and institutional strengthening of WASA agencies will be given priority, while the newly established WASA agencies are being strengthened day by day, while collaboration with relevant institutions is helping improve planning and development processes. Meanwhile, the Punjab government has also decided to implement IT reforms in all WASAs across Punjab.
As part of this initiative, disposal stations and tube wells will be integrated into the SCADA system, while the monitoring of WASA offices and infrastructure province-wide will be managed through a central dashboard.
In this connection, WASA Lahore MD Ghufran Ahmed chaired a meeting, which was attended by the Managing Directors of all WASAs across the province, as well as Deputy Project Director of Planning and Engineering Qaiser Raza. Significant decisions were made regarding the integration of modern technology and IT systems into all WASA departments.
On this occasion, the WASA Lahore MD announced plans to install digital rain gauges in all WASAs before the upcoming monsoon season, enhancing rainfall monitoring through modern methods. He also stated that all underpasses and key locations will be monitored via live cameras.
To boost revenue, geo-tagging of consumer properties will be undertaken in all WASAs, with directives to transition the billing system to real-time banking. For the convenience of citizens, the 1334 Complaint Management System, Digital Complaint Centres, and a centralised Android mobile application will be introduced in all WASAs.
Moreover, the meeting underscored the importance of ensuring effective desalination operations. The WASA Lahore MD noted that central dashboards for Punjab WASAs would be developed under the supervision of IT experts from WASA Lahore, enabling all institutions to deliver more transparent and efficient services through modern technology.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.