KARACHI: Sindh government decided, on Wednesday, to outsource operation and maintenance (O&M) of all reverse osmosis (RO) functional plants through a competitive process. Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah, (CM) directed the Finance Department to provide necessary funds for the purpose of outsourcing O&M. “I want you to monitor and evaluate operation and maintenance through District Oversight Committees,” he directed. Murad Ali Shah during a meeting with officials of different departments responsible for establishing, operating and maintaining water supply and drainage schemes said that his government was committed to provide clean drinking water to people of Sindh.”All water supply and RO plant schemes have to be made operational by taking immediate measures,” he asserted during the meeting. The CM further said that an android-based software application should be developed along with a dashboard for monitoring and evaluating (M&E) these plants. During the meeting, CM Murad, through a presentation, was told that there were 2,109 water filtration plants including 1,620 RO plants and 242 ultrafiltration (UF) plants. He was told that out of these filtration plants 1,044 were functional while 818 plants were non-functional. On this, Murad Ali Shah directed officials of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department to make all the nonfunctional RO and UF plants operational by focusing on of functionality of machinery, equipment, TDS value of product water, pH value of product water, membranes, filters, capacity of plant and human resources within a month. “If the plants are nonfunctional because of power shortage, they can be converted to solar energy,” said the CM. “RO meters and sensors for M&E should be installed within a month,” the CM further directed. He added that the District Oversight Committee would be then entrusted with the task of overseeing O&M and M&E operations of all water filtration plants. “Fortnightly analysis of issues relating to O&M of scheme and plants and report should be sent to PHED secretary,” directed the CM. CM Murad was also informed during the meeting that there were 5,091 water supply and drainage schemes in total and out of them of 2,353 were functional, 2,494 were non-functional while 244 had been abandoned. Chief Secretary (CS) Major (retd) Azam Suleman told the CM that in light of a Supreme Court (SC) order, all water supply and drainage schemes had been transferred to PHED. The meeting then decided to make all non-functional water supply and drainage schemes operational and then monitor them through District Oversight Committee. Minister Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, Chief Secretary Major (retd) Azam Suleman, P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Training Secretary Asif Hyder Shah, Irrigation Secretary Jamal Shah, PHE Secretary Saeed Mangnijo, Local Government Secretary Khalid Hyder Shah and other relevant officers attended the meeting. Govt to offer ‘hard area’ allowance to doctors in rural areas In a separate meeting on Wednesday Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the Health Department to complete the up gradation of 13 taluka hospital to district headquarters hospital (DHQs) by December 2018 and offer ‘hard area’ allowance to doctors serving in remote areas. The CM while presiding over a meeting convened at the CM House to review the progress being made by the Health Department remarked that there had been some positive changes following the ‘health emergency’ he had declared in his last tenure.”We have to continue our efforts in a more energetic and effective way for capacity building of doctors, improving health services, and improving medical education system,” he added. In the meeting it was pointed out that the doctors were reluctant to serve in remote areas. At this, the chief minister directed health department to give them hard area allowance. Secretary Health Dr Usman Chachar while briefing the CM said that there was a sanctioned strength of 67,876 doctors and paramedics staff in health department. He was told that 2929 doctors of general cadres, 492 doctors of specialist cadre, 129 dentists, 10 pharmacists, 9 drug administration, 210 nurses, 1214 paramedics and 1295 Lady Health Workers (LHW) were required to fill the vacant positions. On this, the CM directed the health department officials to fill the vacant positions in order to make under-construction health facilities functional. The CM was told that under special initiatives of the chief minister, 17 Taluka Headquarter Hospitals were being upgraded to the level District headquarter Hospitals (DHQs). He was told that these hospitals were located in Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Jamshoro, Khairpur, Badin, Shikarpur, Mithi, Thatta, Dadu, Naushehroferoze, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Mirpur Mathelo, matiari, Kamber-Shahdadkot, Umerkot and kashmore. At this the chief minister directed the health secretary complete the construction work on these hospitals and get their sanctioned new posts (SNEs) approved by December 2018. “I want to make them functional at any cost,” he said. It was pointed out that there were 206 primary health facilities in Sindh which included 138 Rural Health Centers (RHC) , 810 Basic Health Units (BHUs), 883 dispensaries, 89 MCHC, two Homeopathic dispensaries, eight urban health centers (UHCs), 44 unani shifa khana and 42 maternity homes. The chief minister was told that out of 2016 health facilities 1032 were being run by Peoples Primary Healthcare Institutes (PPHI), 821 by health department and 163 on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The meeting was told that out of 109 secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities 95 were being run by the health department and 14 were operating under PPP mode. The CM was told that there were up to 75 institutions providing medical education in Sindh and these included five universities, eight colleges, four dental colleges, 21 nursing schools, five public health schools, 16 community midwifery schools, two nursing colleges, four paramedical institutes, one physiotherapy school, two health technicians schools and seven institutes like National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD). Health Secretary Usman Chachar told the CM that 12 programs were in progress in the health sector. He explained that these included Expanded Programs on Immunisation, LHWs programs Maternal & Child Neonatal Child Health Program, TB Control program, Prevention & Control of Hepatitis, Prevention & control of blindness, Malaria Control, Nutrition Support, enhanced HIV AIDS control, Dengue Control & Prevention as well as an accelerated action and Diabetic Control program. The chief minister directed the health department to keep him posting weekly progress of these programs. Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho also assured the CM that she would be monitoring the progress of these health sector programs. Published in Daily Times, August 30th 2018.