Vice Chairman of Water & Sanitation Agency (WASA) Sheikh Imtiaz Mehmood has said that unauthorized commercial aquifer connections can be regularized without penalty during a period of one month.

He was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, here on Monday. Deputy Managing Director Finance and Revenue WASA Naveed Mazher, Director Revenue WASA Mian M. Muneer and LCCI office bearers were also present on the occasion.

It was also decided that WASA will establish a facilitation desk at the Lahore Chamber to ensure early resolution of the issues being faced by the business community.

The well-equipped facilitation desk would have an officer to respond to the inquiries of the businessmen and would take up their issues with the concerned authorities of WASA.

Vice Chairman of WASA, Sheikh Imtiaz Mehmood, said that most of the people have been harassed or faced heavy fines due to lack of information on their part. He said that underground water level in Lahore is getting lower and therefore we need to focus on water conservation very seriously.

He said the only solution to all the water related issues is to get hydrology license under amnesty scheme for industrial water connections within a month. He sought LCCI cooperation to make people aware of the amnesty scheme to register their units for hydrology licence.

WASA has published a pamphlet with all details in it, he said adding that registration will be done according to the water extraction level, be it deep or shallow, and the charges will be fixed accordingly. While answering a question about heavy fine, he said that all should first register their plants for licensing then the issues will be taken categorically.

Regarding poor sanitation in Lahore, he said that WASA is going to launch an application named "Hazir Sir" for immediate solution of sanitation problem.

The complaints with pictorial evidence have to be just uploaded on the app.