KARACHI, July 9: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has stressed the need for expediting the work on projects of generating electricity from solid waste and sewage treatment plants so that problems of power and water could be overcome.

The chief minister stated this while chairing a meeting on water-related issues in Karachi held here on Tuesday.

The chief minister directed the managing director of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board to present him a report of technical experts within a week on the projects which were under consideration for mitigating water shortage and disposal of waste in Karachi so that clean water supply and sewage related issues faced by the citizens of Karachi could be resolved at the earliest.

The participants in the meeting were informed that there were two types of sewage — household waste and industrial waste.

The treatment plants were installed on domestic sewage water while the strategy for installation of a treatment plant for waste discharged from the industrial sites would be finalised after consultation with the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“The work on different projects to treat sewage is under way and feasibility of one such project was completed by a London firm. The work on this project was initiated in 2006 and the cost was estimated at Rs9 billion at that time which had gone up after certain amendments to the design and the site to Rs17 billion,” it was stated in the meeting.

The chief minister asked the water board to submit its report so that the projects could be taken up with the federal government for approval of the planning division and the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council and international tenders could be floated as per Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules.

The chief minister said that the World Bank, Japan and Chinese companies had also shown their interest in the project and that soon he would call a meeting of all officials concerned from the province for initiating work to use solid waste of the province for generating electricity through use of new technology so that basic facilities could be ensured to the people.

The officials present at the meeting included principal secretary to the chief minister Naveed Kamran Baloch, divisional commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, administrator of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation Hashim Zaidi and water board managing director Misbahuddin Farid.