PESHAWAR: Members of the Peshawar district council on Tuesday criticised the Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP) for its poor performance though it was established a year ago by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government with a great pomp and show.

In the first formal council meeting convened on the requisition of District Nazim Mohammad Asim Khan, the councillors said that WSSP had miserably failed to provide sanitation and water supply services to the consumers during the previous one year.

Though it was the introductory session of the district council, chaired by its convener Qasim Ali Shah, the councillors of the 92 wards also criticised the performance of the education and health departments. Most of them said that educational and health institutions located in their respective areas were in a pathetic condition.

Meena Khan Afridi said that there were some problems with WSSP in dividing Peshawar in different zones. He said that WSSP was virtually non-existent in wards 28 and 29 because neither zone B nor zone C was ready to own these wards.

Another councillor Rehman Afzal said that most of the drains in his areas were choked as they were yet to see WSSP employees. “The WSSP has completely failed to deliver in Peshawar,” he said.

First formal session of district council held

He said that when a tube well was damaged in Peshawar the WSSP and Public Health Engineering Department held each other responsible for its repair. “The sweepers are not available in our area,” he said.

Millions of people have been facing traffic-related problems since washing away of the Bara River bridge by floods some four months ago on the Canal Road, said Raham Dil Nawaz, adding that traffic from there was now being diverted to the already busy Kohat Road, which often caused traffic jams.

He said that Kohat Road was the only route being used by people of the southern districts and traffic could be seen either jammed or moving at snail’s pace on it. He demanded of the provincial government to immediately release funds for reconstruction of the bridge otherwise they would launch an agitation over the issue.

Ms Salma Saeed said that clean drinking water and selling of unhygienic food was a very serious issue. She demanded of the nazim to activate the authorities concerned to ensure safe drinking water and food to people that would help decrease the incidence of diseases.

Mohammad Ijaz Khan said that there were no doctors and other staff and facilities in the rural health centre (RHC) in Ghara Tajik. He said that as such the patients had to go for medical checkup in major hospitals of Peshawar city. Alamzeb Khan said that the status of WSSP should be clarified in the best public interest.

Replying to the members’ concerns, the district nazim said that he had asked the WSSP to arrange a briefing for the councillors about its functions.

He said that he had already requested the chief minister to provide funds for the reconstruction of bridge on the Bara River.

He assured the council members that justice would be done in the distribution of development funds.

He said that no one would be ignored irrespective of their party affiliations. He said that he had already asked the district education officer to reopen all the closed schools.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2015

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