ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development has recommended holding an independent inquiry against the officials who were involved in wrong designing and wrong planning of desalination plant installed in Gwadar and to give them exemplary punishment.
The subcommittee of Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development which met at the Parliament House on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Agha Shahzaib Durrani took serious notice of wrong and bad planning of the water supply scheme for Gwadar that caused loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer.
The meeting was also attended by Senators Usman Kakar, Mohsin Leghari and representatives from the concerned departments. The officials of Public Health Engineering, Balochistan, while giving briefing the members of the committee, said that the plant, for which the funds amounting to rupees one billion had been disbursed, was not functional now. The officials told the committee that the federal government handed over the project to the provincial government in 2016, to provide drinking water to the residents of Gwadar city but it was closed down after remaining functional for only 20 days. The subcommittee was assured that the plant will be made functional soon but an amount of Rs 80 million would be required for the revival of the project.
The committee was informed that currently water is supplied through tankers for which the provincial government was spending a huge amount. The members of the subcommittee recommended the transfer of the plant to China as provincial government was not able to run such projects. The committee was informed that people of Gwadar had been facing water shortage for many months but were still waiting to receive clean drinking water.
The subcommittee also decided to visit Gwadar at the end of this month to look into the progress for the provision of the clean drinking water to the residents of Gwadar and adjoining areas.
