KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that his government was committed to providing clean drinking water to the people of Sindh.
He said this while presiding over a meeting of different departments responsible for commencing, operating and maintaining water supply and drainage schemes, a statement on Wednesday said.
The meeting was attended by Minister for 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 officers concerned.
The Sindh CM through a presentation was told that there were 2109 water filtration plants, including 1620 RO plants and 242 UF plants, out of them 1044 were functional and 818 were non-functional.
On that, Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the PHED to operationalize 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 if there were electricity issues then the plants must be converted into solar energy.
Murad 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.
An android-based application should be developed along with dashboard for monitoring & evaluation (M&E), he added.
The CM Sindh was told that all 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 include 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 CM Sindh was also informed that there were 5091 water supply and drainage schemes of them 2353 were functional and 2494 non-functional while 244 were abandoned.
Chief Secretary Major (Retd.) Azam Suleman told the Sindh CM in light of Supreme Court order, all water supply and drainage schemes have been transferred to PHED.
The meeting decided to operationalize all the non-functional water supply and drainage schemes and then monitor them through district oversight committee.
It may be noted that District Oversight Committee would be notified under DC (chairman), XEN PHED, assistant commissioner of talukas, AEN of taluka concerned.
The Sindh CM directed the chief secretary to get all the required funds released from the finance department and get these schemes functional.
APP