KARACHI: Despite passage of six years, Pak Oasis Company (POC), a private contractor of Sindh government, has been failed to provide potable water in Lyari and Kemari towns, it is learnt.
In 2011, Sindh government granted POC a project to install 20 Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants in Lyari and Kemari towns, but, the private company managed to install only 13 plants in said zones during six years.
Among the total of 13 installed RO plants, five plants have malfunctioned and remaining plants are not working as per required capacity, according to survey conducted by several non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The technical staff of NGOs revealed that among total of 13 plants, 8 plants were either not functioning to their water filtering capacity on pretext of frequent power disruptions and deposit of sand while 5 plants malfunctioned.
POC claimed to have installed all 20 RO plants but seven RO plants only exists on papers as no trace of those plants have been found in any part of the city.
Sindh government had allocated Rs 5.75 billion in this regard and has already paid the full amount to POC during six years. In addition to that an amount of Rs 6.50 billion has also been paid to POC for the maintenance of those RO plants, from which some don’t even exist during the last four years.
Water Commission in order to keep record of such a big project in place has asked Sindh government to submit details about the project and the money spent. Later Water Commission has submitted the same to Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Owais Malik, Project Director RO Plant of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board has confirmed about the existence of 13 such plants but has denied about existence of remaining seven plants.
He said water filtering capacity of 13 RO plants stands at 13 million gallons per day, however we are trying to rectify the faults and in this connection, a system has been evolved to bring seawater directly to these plants for filtration in order to avoid deposit of sand and other water rudiments.
He revealed that Younisabad (Keamari) RO plant is under construction aiming to cater the daily need of potable water of the area.
Besides, KW&SB is taking measures to recharge and make several inactive RO plants to be functional in possible short period of time, he concluded.
Acute shortage of water in areas of Lyari and Keamari is still prevailing despite the fact of installation of these RO plants, lamented Qamar Qureshi Chairman Economic Forum Pakistan.
He demanded the National accountability Bureau and other investigating agencies to investigate the wastage of such a big amount of public taxes in name of RO plants.
The huge public funds loss has been attributed to financial corruption, poor maintenance and no follow-up check on the quality and performance of the project awarded to POC.
The report of water samples taken from RO plants has established unequivocally that the water being produced does not meet quality standards fit for human consumption.
Awais Muzaffar alias Tappi, former Minister Sindh Local Government Department (LGD) is said to be a partner in POC.