BATKHELA: Residents of Batkhela city and suburbs have complained that a gravity based water supply scheme could not be made functional despite its completion one and a half year ago at a cost of Rs780 million.

The scheme was approved during the ANP-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Talking to Dawn, local residents said thousands of inhabitants were facing acute shortage of drinking water. They said the public health and engineering department started work on the project in March 2012 and completed it in June 2017.

The gravity based water supply scheme was completed at Rs780m

An official of public health department said 300,000 gallons of water (1.2 million litres) would be supplied to a water tank in Batkhela daily in five hours, providing drinking water to 75,000 people of the area. He said the project was to be handed over to the tehsil municipal administration, but the latter refused to take its control.

Executive engineer of public health department, Rasool Khan declined to comment on the project, saying the provincial secretary of the department had directed officers not to brief mediapersons on any scheme. He said the secretary could share information himself about the project.

Informed sources told Dawn that there had been an operational issue between the departments of public health engineering and tehsil municipal administration. They said the PHE department was demanding recruitment of 23 employees for the project, including gauge readers, valve men, a watchman and sub-engineers. They said the provincial government had sanctioned 13 posts, including nine for valve men-cum-watchman, two plant Qulis and one gauge reader while one post of sub-engineer was lying vacant.

The sources said seven out of 12 Class-IV workers were employed from Swat district and the rest from Malakand.

The sources said the PHE department had given water connections to 975 consumers so far. They said the total population of Batkhela city was 75,000 people while the project had the capacity to provide drinking water to 159,000 people.

Former provincial minister for finance and PPP provincial president Engr Humayun Khan, who got the project approved during his term, told Dawn on contact that the PTI government had deliberately deprived the people of Batkhela of the benefits of the mega water supply project.

He said people living in remote hilly areas of Batkhela were to be provided with drinking water facility through solar-powered schemes, but the incumbent government had also shelved the project.

Despite repeated attempts provincial minister for revenue and MPA from Malakand Shakil Khan could not be contacted.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2019