LAHORE: As the monsoon is approaching fast, two major Water and Sanitation Agencies (WASAs) of Punjab — Lahore and Rawalpindi – are working without managing directors (MDs) for quite some time.

The Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department (HUD&PHED) — the parent department of all development and parks & horticulture authorities and five WASAs (Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Multan) — has moved a summary to the provincial government for appointment on the vacant posts.

“A summary seeking appointment of Muhammad Ghufran and Tanveer Ahmad was moved over a week ago to the government for their appointment as Lahore and Rawalpindi WASAs MDs. But the decision is yet to be made. Due to vacant posts, important decisions on arrangements to deal with possible urban flooding, timely drainage of rainwater, setting up of camps, desilting of drains etc are pending,” an official source said while talking to Dawn on Sunday.

“Both Mr Ghufran and Mr Tanveer are presently working as the deputy managing directors, Operations and Director, Engineering of WASA, Lahore, respectively. Mr Tanveer has also worked as Rawalpindi WASA MD and he was transferred to Lahore to head WASA for a period of three months after the retirement of Syed Zahid Aziz in March this year. The three months duration ended around 20 days ago.”

The official said the Rawalpindi WASA MD was removed from the office by the Punjab government after the commissioner expressed dissatisfaction with his performance in the wake of desilting of Nullah Lai and other drains ahead of the monsoon and other administrative and functional issues.

The metropolitan city of Lahore is also very critical in terms of at least 21 major sore points having huge accumulation of rainwater during the monsoon ever year. These points include Lakshami Chowk, Kashmir Road, Cooper Road, GPO, Lytton Road, Nabha Road, Qartaba Chowk, Empress Road, Ek Moria Pul, Do Moria Mul, Sultan Ahmad Road Ichhra, Chowk Nakhuda, Bhaati Gate, Allah Hu Chowk, Qainchi Stop, Tikka Chowk, Firdaus Market, Shah Jamal and Jinnah Hospital.

“Lahore WASA sets up 29 field camps in various parts of the city for the timely drainage of the rainwater from 21 sore points. But not a single camp has been set up in the city yet. Moreover, the monsoon plan is yet to be finalised as there is no MD to approve and allocate sufficient resources in this regard,” revealed another official source.

“The teams may start setting up camps from June 15,” he added.

It may be mentioned that the all five Punjab WASAs have been passing through severe financial crunch, particularly for the last few years due to absence of annual subsidies and bar on increase in the water tariff (proposal pending since 2004) from the government.

The Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) and Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) disconnected power supply to WASAs for defaulting on bills, including Rs700m owed by Lahore WASA alone to Lesco. The HUD&PHED, facing financial hardships sought Rs6.78bn for WASAs, including Rs2.62bn for Lahore, Rs953m for Faisalabad, Rs640m for Gujranwala, Rs1.8bn for Multan and Rs1.4bn for WASA of Rawalpindi.

However, the government, keeping in view the media reports and sensitivity of the issue, partially released Rs1.5bn in the wake of the Rs6.78bn bailout package, include Rs480m for Lahore, Rs210m for Faisalabad, Rs160m for Gujranwala, Rs350m for Multan and Rs300m for Rawalpindi WASA for the payment of bills.

DENGUE: The Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) has launched an operation for the surveillance of dengue and its prevention in various parts of the city.

According to LWMC MD Rafia Haider, the field teams have started monitoring 31 hotspots.

“So far, 1,882 complaints of dengue hotspots have been received, out of which, more than 1,500 were responded by clearing of dengue larvae in association with the departments concerned while 285 complaints were disposed of for being irrelevant.

“The 31 dengue hotspots across the city are being monitored in three shifts. All the town managers are uploading the daily surveillance report of the hotspot areas of their area on the LWMC portal,” she said while visiting the sites in city on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2022