LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to revise water and sanitation tariffs for all WASAs so as to improve their efficiencies, besides removing all illegal water connections.
This decision was taken during the second meeting of the Resources Mobilization Committee, chaired by Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht.
Punjab Irrigation Minister Mohsin Laghari and Education Minister Murad Raas were also present on the occasion.
The agenda of the meeting was to discuss a business plan to increase the volume of WASAs’ revenue.
The meeting decided that the federal government will be requested to assign a social tariff for the water and sanitation associations in Punjab. It was agreed that the burden of water and sanitation charges on lower groups would be reduced and revenue generated by the WASAs would be spent on its required equipment.
The housing and public health engineering secretary, while briefing the meeting about the proposed business plan of the WASA Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi, said that the government will provide Rs18.5 billion subsidy to these associations by 2023, adding that WASAs could increase their revenue streams by Rs7.4 billion by implementing on the proposed plan.
“The government will give a Rs7.9 billion subsidy in the next three years, after which WASAs will become self-sufficient,” he said. “Water supply in private schemes will also be brought into the legal framework, whereas issued pertaining to water leakages, illegal connections and water supply without meters will be addressed.”
He said all WASAs would be provided required equipment for sewerage in order to end the public complaints.
The minister approved the proposed business plan of the WASAs and instructed the officials concerned to collect the details of water and electricity connections in Punjab. He also called for clubbing the revenue collection on solid waste management with WASAs in order to control sewerage issues.
