LAHORE: A joint delegation of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Bank (WB) on Tuesday paid a visit to the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) to know about funding sources, mechanisms and strategies for various projects related to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

The purpose of the visit, according to a source, was to carry out a detailed study in this regard besides formulating future plans and policies to fund this sector.

“The delegation’s focus was to know about the funding source — own sources, loans, grants, foreign funding etc -- and the projects being implemented by Wasa Lahore in particular and others in general. They were also keen to know about the projects being implemented under the public-private-partnership (PPP) and the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT),” the officer, requesting anonymity, explained.

He said the Wasa authorities briefed the delegation on various projects, including all those funded by the international institutions or donors. They told the delegates about the methodology being used to implement foreign-funded projects. They also told the participants about the existing and future financing plans on various projects, revenue generation, sustainability, field operations, beneficiaries, operation & maintenance, assets, manpower, challenges, problems etc.

To a question, the official said, “Wasa is currently implementing dozens of development schemes worth Rs78bn under the Lahore Development Plan and worth Rs183bn, including few of wastewater treatment plants, under foreign funding plans.”

He said the delegation was also told about restructuring of revenue directorate by introducing various innovative plans to detect misuse of water & sewer connections (61,000 new connections detected in 18 months), decrease in average complaint redress time from three months to seven days, real-time monitoring through dashboards etc that led to increasing revenue from Rs579m to Rs1.6bn per month in last 24 months.

“Regarding cost-cutting, we told the IFC, WB people about rationalisation of tube well operational hours (expenditure of electricity/month (tubewells/disposals) reduced to Rs90m), outsourcing of R&M of tube wells & disposal stations, solarization (2.0MW installed), energy audit (twice a year), in–house digitalization etc that led to decreasing expenditures by Rs5bn per annum.”

He further said the participants were told about water metering (711,263 meters on PPP mode), recycling plants at 310 service stations, water violation fines, reuse of ablution water (51 mosques), restoration of canal water courses in Governor House, Jinnah Gardens, FC College, Racecourse Park, Punjab University and public awareness advertisements.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2024