Only 9.2 percent households getting potable water in Faisalabad: Wasa

Only 9.2 percent households in Faisalabad are supplied with potable water due to unavailability of resources and funds with the local authorities. In a briefing to journalists, Director Water at Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) Faisalabad Usman Latif revealed that they are providing potable water to only 113,000 households out of 1.23 million households in the city.
He said the agency is working to improve the existing network of the water supply and installing water meters as well to conserve the existing water resources with the help of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The JICA has provided around Rs 6.4 billion funds to Wasa to procure required machinery and equipment to improve water supply in the city.
These funds have been utilized to purchase jet and suction machines, excavators, dump trucks, dewatering sets for drainage of pounding areas, pumps, motors and generators for disposal stations to enhance their efficiency. Latif said that around 1,400 kilometres long water pipeline has been laid in the city to provide water to domestic, commercial and industrial users. "We have been providing clean drinking water to our subscribers and trying to enhance the supply area as well," he said.
He said that they have also installed around 20,000 water meters across the city to conserve water. "This is a pilot project and we intend to enhance it in coming months and years," he said. Latif urged the residents of the city not to waste water as it is a precious resource. "The underground water of Faisalabad is not only brackish but is contaminated," he said, adding that they have also been providing bottled water at a reasonable price to the people.
"We test our water samples in a lab daily to ensure its quality," he said, adding that the residents of the city are provided new connections of potable water within a few days, but only if they live in the existing supply network. "It is a challenge for us to increase our water supply network in the city and we are trying to do that with the help of international donor agencies and the government of Punjab," he said.