KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that his government is committed to provide clean drinking water to the people of Sindh, therefore all water supply and RO plant schemes have to be operationalised by taking emergent steps.
This he said while presiding over a joint of different departments responsible for establishing, operating and maintaining water supply and drainage schemes on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by Minister Local Government Saeed Ghani, Chief Secretary Major (retd) Azam Suleman, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary Training Asif Hyder Shah, Secretary Irrigation Jamal Shah, Secretary PHE Saeed Mangnijo, Secretary Local Government Khalid Hyder Shah, deputy MD Water and other concerned officers.
The chief minister through a presentation was told that there were 2,109 water filtration plants, including 1,620 RO plants and 242 UF plants, out of them 1,044 were functional and 818 were non-functional.
At this the chief minister directed the PHED to operationalise all the non-functional RO/UF plants on account of functionality of the machinery, equipment, TDS value of product water, pH value of product water, membranes, filters, capacity of the plant and human resources within a month. He added that where there were electricity issues the plants must be converted on solar energy.
Syed Murad Ali Shah also decided to contract out operation and maintenance of all RO plants through competitive process. He directed the finance department to provide necessary funds for the purpose. “I want you to monitor and evaluate O&M through District Oversight Committees to be notified by the chief secretary,” he said and added an android-based software application should be developed along with dashboard for monitoring & evaluation (M&E).
The chief minister was told that all the RO plants would be installed with RO meters and sensors for M&E within a month. The TOR of the District Oversight Committee (DOC) would be as follows:
To oversee proper O&M of all schemes and plants; to oversee proper M&E of all schemes and RO plants especially in reference to their operation and maintenance. Fortnightly analysis of issues relating to O&M of the scheme and plants. The report shall be sent to the secretary PHED.
The chief minister was also informed that there were 5091 water supply and drainage schemes, of them 2353 are functional and 2494 non-functional while 244 were abandoned. Chief Secretary Major (retd) Azam Suleman told the chief minister that in the light of Supreme Court order all water supply and drainage schemes have been transferred to PHED. The meeting decided to operationalise all the non-functional water supply & drainage schemes and then monitor them through district over sight committee.
It may be noted that District Oversight Committee would be notified under DC (chairman), XEN PHED, assistant commissioner of talukas, AEN of concerned taluka.
The chief minister directed the chief secretary to get all the required funds released from finance department and get these schemes functional.