Citizens of the capital city continue to suffer as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) drags its heels on plans to install 20 more water filtration plants in various parts of the capital, especially in the less developed sectors, Pakistan Today has learnt.
“Owing to increasing complaints by the residents of the less developed sectors, the CDA’s water supply directorate prepared a plan two years ago to install 20 filtration plants in I, H, G and F sectors in the third phase. So far the CDA has installed 33 water filtration plants worth Rs 18 million in the first and second phase,” said a CDA official. He said that the water supply directorate sent requests for approval of funds to the CDA’s finance wing which has not paid heed to it.
The relevant directorate has also been unable to ensure maintenance of the already installed plants owing to a lack of funds, he said. The official said that out of the 33 filtration plants, 19 were installed in G-6/2, G-7/4, G8/1, G-9/2, G-9/3, G-11/2, G-10/3, four in G-6/1-2, G-6/1, G-7/3-1, G-7, G-8/2, G-11/3, G-10 and G-6. In Sector H, the CDA has installed only one plant, while seven filtration plants have been installed in various parts of the I sector series including I-8/3, I-10, I-10/4, I-9/1 and two at I-10/2 and I-11/4.
Three filtration plants have been installed in F sector series; F-6/1, F-10/1 and F-5, the official said. He said that the CDA high-ups also directed its relevant directorate to identify the sites for the installation of plants, but the directorate has yet to identify the spots. Similarly, the CDA’s water supply directorate made no specific arrangement for the cleanliness of water filtration plants in the city and did not launch any campaign to raise awareness among the people, said the official.
He said that for the installation of 20 filtration plants, around Rs 2 million was required. He said that the existing plants were operating for 15 hours daily with breaks from 3:00 am to 10:00 am, and 5:30 pm to 1:00am.
