Daily Times

US Consul General, Colleen Crenwelge, on Friday, inaugurated a Water Filtration Plant at Government Elementary School for Boys, Basti Dasti Wala, in District Muzaffargarh.

This water filtration plant has been installed with the support of the USAID-funded Punjab Youth Workforce Development (PYWD) Project. USAID-PYWD Project, Chief of Party, Qaisar Nadeem, said that the objective of this project was to support the district and local governments in the provision of safe drinking water to the community members; decreasing water-borne diseases; increasing savings and enhancing credibility among the youth and poor community as well as district administration.

In this area of district Muzaffargarh, there remains no proper sanitation or even availability of potable water.

The water test report depicted a high arsenic level and thrice as many Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) when compared to the WHO standards.

Therefore, realising the genuine need of the community, USAID’s PYWD Project installed grid-free Water Filtration plant by using renewable energy solutions, Nadeem added.

This water filtration plant has the processing capacity of 500 litres per hour and is primarily powered by a 5-KW solar system. It also removes bacterial, microbial and viral contamination from the drinking water; making it suitable and healthy for drinking purpose, he said.

The chief further added that to ensure the sustainability of this water filtration plant, the USAID-PYWD Project engaged the district government Muzaffargarh to seek ownership. The project team also delivered awareness sessions to the community’s reflect circle groups and formed a committee to ensure efficient management, proper maintenance and security of this plant, which would benefit around 6000-7000 people in Basti Dasti Wala.

Others present on the occasion included Advisor to Punjab Chief Minister for Agriculture Affairs Sardar Abdul Haye Dasti; Government Elementary School for Boys Headmaster Azhar Hussain Zaidi; representatives from the community, Civil Society, and local media.

Thereafter, Colleen along with Muzaffargarh Deputy Commissioner, Barrister Ehtasham Anwar inaugurated a Facilitation Center at Deputy Commissioner’s office.

This facilitation centre stood as a testament to the USAID-PYWD Project’s commitment to supporting the district and local governments in providing improved infrastructure and better civic amenities through small community development initiatives.

Several departments in the public sector are involved in the provision of civic services to citizens.

Each department is providing one or more services through different laborious processes; automated or manual.

Established on request of the Muzaffargarh Deputy Commissioner’s Office, the objective of this facilitation centre was to support the citizens in having an easy, quick, and unimpeded access to the district government services at one place.

The modus operandi of this Facilitation Center is to integrate four governmental services, including the issuance of domicile certificate; armed license; route permit and record copying under one roof. It is aimed to ease Citizens vs. Governmental interphase.

There is one delivery counter for people to collect their required documents on given timelines.

The Incharge/Manager’s room has also been established, where he/she would ensure the smooth functioning of the centre. Therefore, the people of Muzaffargarh could benefit from this multifunctional service and get their said certificate/documents efficiently, timely and in a comfortable environment.

The Consul General also witnessed an MoU signing, which took place at the Facilitation Center between USAID’s PYWD Project and the district government of Muzaffargarh for its formal hand over.

Other participants of the event included Additional Deputy Commissioner (R)Atta ul Haq; Assistant deputy Commissioner, Zahoor Hussain Bhutta; Assistant Director Technical Planning & Development Board, Engineer Tanveer Ahmed Sahoo and Secretary District Regional Transport Authority, Muzaffargarh, Urooj Fatima.

A Call Center, Awaze Khalq Helpline-1718, was also inaugurated opposite the Facilitation Center. This helpline has been set up with the support of USAID-PYWD to facilitate the residents of Muzaffargarh in getting the information related to the DC office as well as registering their queries and complaints regarding any department of the district government.

Through this service, the district administration of Muzaffargarh would be able to efficiently respond to citizens and address their district-level queries related to domicile, weapon license, registry branch, transfer of lands, death, divorce & marriage certificate, character certificate, birth certificate and no objection certificate (NOC).

The citizens of Muzaffargarh would also be able to lodge their complaints about food adulteration; profiteering; broken roads; fake factories; sewage issues; environmental pollution; illegal slaughterhouses; illegal filling of gas cylinders; poor quality construction and other such public issues.

The DC office would be directly supervising the whole process to address the citizens’ concerns and issues promptly.

The USAID-Punjab Youth Workforce Development (PYWD) Project is transforming Pakistan’s young men and women from underprivileged backgrounds into an economic dividend.

The project strives to achieve at least 35 per cent female inclusion, out of the total 10,000 youth through skills development and equal participation in decision-making, self-employment and microfinance opportunities.

In addition to training and job placement, the project has upgraded 6 TVET institutes and established 2 Career Council Centers in Muzaffargarh. In this regard, the project disbursed Rs. 11 million ($95,000). Moreover, for the community facilitation and supporting GOP’s initiatives, the project provided 10,000 trees to the District Government, Muzaffargarh, installing 6 Water Filtration Plants, Citizens’ Facilitation Center and Call Center 1718 at Deputy Commissioner Complex. The project spent over Rs. 18 million ($155,000) on community schemes. The total project investment in Muzaffargarh is approximately Rs. 84 million ($700,000).