Punjab Saaf Paani Company to provide clean drinking water to over 23 million people
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LAHORE (APP): Punjab Saaf Pani Company has floated tenders among 42 pre-qualified international bidders for award of 14 contracts worth US$ 1.15 billion to provide safe and clean drinking water to over 23 million peoples in 7,496 villages of ten districts with highly underground polluted water in the province.
Safe drinking water solutions (water filtration plants) are being installed in 35 priority tehsils of ten districts of Kasur, Okara, Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Bahawalpur, Lodhran, Rahim Yar Khan, Sahiwal and Faisalabad in the first phase of Khadim-e-Punjab Saaf Pani Programme.
The residents of these rural areas will start getting safe and clean drinking water by December 2017.
On Friday, Punjab Saaf Pani Company (PSPC), the executing agency of the programme, held an open forum with over 150 representatives of pre-qualified bidders from Australia, Austria, China, France, Iran, South Korea, Malaysia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates to address their queries about the award of contracts, underground water contamination reports, load-shedding data, security guarantees and operation & maintenance costs of the contracts.
Replying to queries by representatives of pre-qualified multinational companies, CEO PSPC Waseem Ajmal said that law of land will be followed in letter and spirit to ensure timely and quality service delivery.
"We hope due diligence is observed by contractors in the execution of clean drinking water solutions and stringent check and balanced will be ensured at all levels," he maintained.
It is the result of sustained efforts by PSPC that so any international companies have shown their interest in execution of safe drinking water project in Punjab province, he said and added that the representatives of the pre-qualified
companies have also visited the contract areas and project sites to have better geographical and project understanding.
He said that safe & clean drinking water supply project is a mega project costing approximately US$ 3000 million, which will cover 137 tehsils (20,000 villages) to provide basic necessity of life to over 50 million rural population in province of Punjab.
This landmark programme will provide safe drinking water to every household within 0.5 km radius in a comprehensive, integrated and sustainable manner, he added.
He said the Punjab government established the autonomous, government-owned and fully financed PSPC to provide safe and clean drinking water as per the World Health Organization's Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality in rural areas of the
province.
So far, as a pilot project, around 100 water filtration plants have been installed in five tehsils of South Punjab including Minchanabad, Khanpur, Hasilpur, Dunyapur and Lodhran to provide safe drinking water to 250,000 individuals, he added.
