KOHAT: The project of clean drinking water for all, which was initiated in 2005-06 and was to be completed in 2015, has been shelved after facing many delays, Dawn has learnt.

The PC-1 of the project was prepared in 2004 at a cost of Rs115 million, which was revised costing Rs495 million. But the project has been abandoned for unknown reasons since 2007, Wahid ur Rehman, the district finance officer, who had worked on the project for five years, told Dawn.

He said initially the project was named as clean drinking water initiative and later it was renamed as clean drinking water for all.

The official said millions of rupees were wasted on the feasibility of the water supply project, but those responsible failed to execute it. The official said the project was planned after the Korean International Corporation, National Institute of Health, Islamabad, and WHO conducted tests on samples and declared the water in Kohat as contaminated and unfit for human consumption.

Under the project, said the official, the government had planned to install filtration plants in all the union councils. But, he added only one filtration plant could be installed in the cantonment area. The official said elected representatives of the district councils could not agree on the location of the filtration plants.

The water being supplied to people of the Kohat city by the tehsil municipal administration and the Kohat Development Authority has high levels of contamination as pipelines have become rusty, water tanks dilapidated and drain water is getting mixed with the potable water.

As a result, diseases like hepatitis, kidney swelling, diarrhea, clotting of blood leading to heart diseases and other stomach ailments are common among the residents. The polluted water is also resulting in early baldness and growth of grey hair among children and youth.

Even the water in Women and Children Hospital and Kohat divisional headquarters hospital is not safe for drinking, and doctors bring their own bottled water with them for consumption during duty hours. Similarly, the water in city courts is also not fit for consumption owing to dilapidated water tanks and polluted underground water. The Kohat University of Science and Technology in 2007 conducted 450 tests on samples of water and declared it unfit for human consumption.

POLICE SACRIFICES: The Commandant Frontier Reserves Police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shehzad Aslam Siddiqui on Monday said restoration of peace in the province was the result of sacrifices rendered by the policemen in the war against terrorism.

Addressing a darbar at the police lines here, he said steps were being taken for welfare and capacity building of the police to enable them to face new challenges head on. He said police were performing double duty of providing security of lives and property to people and fighting against terrorists.

He advised the policemen to wear bullet-proof jackets, helmet and turn off warning lights of vehicles except in emergencies. He said a policy was being devised to take back those employees who had been expelled from the department due to their prolong absence from duty.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2015

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