Daily Times

KARACHI: The judicial commission formed on the orders of Supreme Court has raised questions over KWSB’s performance regarding sources of clean drinking water, its consumption and sanitation conditions and allocation of funds for these purposes.

The commission was formed by the apex court while hearing a petition seeking provision of clean drinking water and safe environment to the citizens in Sindh.

The petition was filed to highlight water and sewerage woes in Karachi and other cities of Sindh.

Mohsin Raza, General Secretary, Peoples Labour Union-KWSB (PLU) vide letter PLU/KW&SB/2017/01/08, February 4, 2017 in submissions before commission functioning under Sindh High Court’s Judicial Commission of Inquiry filed a number of constitutional petitions and also submitted a number of grievances in petition in Labour Court and Labour Appellate Court.

As per findings, none of the eight filter plants are functional. The root cause lies in non-availability of sufficient operation and maintenance funds, misuse of existing budget on non-development expenditures, non-availability of technical hands, bringing in additional water beyond the capacity of the filter plants, non-functionality of chlorinators and use of dry chlorine.

No filter plant was constructed in K-III water supply scheme and ultimately raw water passes through the filter plants. We maintain that it is a total failure on the planning side of the KWSB.

Chlorine was not being provided to the filter plants only for want of funds, which is a gross negligence on the part of the finance department of KWSB.

The computerized billing was suddenly stopped without any valid and legal reason. New consumer numbers were issued to the consumers without any lawful authority and valid reason.

The Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants installed with the assistance of the Sindh government at a cost of Rs8 billion had failed to deliver the desired results and instead huge amount of funds are being spent on their maintenance.

Besides, it is anticipated that a private company that fails to install RO plants in Karachi and Sindh would not be able to complete this very important environmental project.

KWSB could have completed a water supply scheme to supply at least additional 50 million gallons of water per day and ultimately increases its revenue.

As per new water connection policy, enhancement of water connection is considered as a new service connection. But practically the policy had not been followed and violated on several occasions.

KWSB suffered a financial loss of about Rs 25 million. Definitely the benefit goes to the builder instead of the board.

The board management did not implement notification for some unknown reasons for commercial and industrial consumers and they were excluded from consumers list. It is estimated that the board is incurring a loss of Rs 400 million per month.

During 2009, KWSB introduced computerized billing system but now the issuance of computerized bills has been suspended/terminated and replaced with the manual one, opening doors of corruption.

At the same time, the revenue collection from hydrants is very poor as it receives only Rs30 million per month against the billed amount of Rs 150 million per month.

The billed amount is based on the meter reading installed during sometime in 2015. In the current bills there is no reflection/mention of the arrears and it is evident that no concrete efforts were made by the concerned department to recover outstanding dues from the defaulters.

None of the sewerage treatment plants is in working condition as TP-II land at Mehmoodabad has been encroached. That S-III project was initiated with a cost of Rs 7 billion but due to inordinate delays and vested interests, its cost has increased over five times reaching Rs 42 billion.

The funds allocated by the Sindh government and the Centre were diverted for payments to other contractors for want of extra commission.

The planning aspects of S-III were discussed at URC (NGO) forum but no heed was paid to improve the situation. The issues related to the encroachments at TP-II hindering the extension of services, lack of collection system in S-III planning and impact of S-III on reducing the environmental pollution, as 40 percent of Karachi areas are still without any sewerage system.

Some of the components of the S-III project were awarded without fulfilling SPPRA requirements. This needs to be investigated to fix the responsibility of delay in projects.

Under the umbrella of MD, it has been adopted as a regular practice to award honorarium to some selected favourites, which is again an irregularity committed by the KWSB management.

Neither the managing director of KWSB nor its board chairman is empowered to waive off even a single penny. Board’s approval is mandatory in all such cases because a huge financial implication involved due to this reconciliation exercise.

PLU suggests that KWSB administration should carry out a forensic audit of meter division and hydrant cells and take stern action against all concerns including influential using water free-of-cost at their agriculture land, fish farms, water parks and industries. It added that water meters be installed at all crucial points for equitable distribution in all localities of Karachi.

It is on record that during the proceedings of Public Accounts Committee in 2013, it was pointed out by the KWSB chief that list of defaulters included DG Rangers, CM House, Governor House, ASF, military personnel, judges, politicians, member national and Sindh assemblies and ministers of Sindh government.

Arrears amounting to Rs 500 million are not reflected in the current bills. The bills generated for the National Logistic Cell does not include electricity charges. The performance of Meter Division is highly questionable and most of the installed meters are non-functional intentionally and purposefully.

On the other hand, KWSB has not made any concrete efforts to recover dues from the hydrant contractors.