Poor sense of priorities

That our public officials just cannot get their priority right has been proven once again by the Sindh government. As per a report in this paper, it was a while ago when the previous government approved a Rs 276 million project for the setting up of effluent treatment plants in different industrial areas of Karachi.
Two years ago, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) had commissioned a feasibility study and even signed a consultancy agreement with a private firm in March 2008. In the meanwhile, a new PPP-led government took over power in the province and the incumbent of the office of Managing Director KWSB changed, too. A few months later, ie, in June 2008, the new MD cancelled the consultancy agreement.
However, it was restored after a detailed presentation succeeded in convincing him otherwise. Then the new government came up with a plan of its own. Additional chief secretary of the development wing held a meeting in early September, arriving at the conclusion that the size of the project was too large and therefore a foreign consultancy firm needs to be hired in tandem with the local one.
This caused further delay. Finally, the matter was resolved by a prime ministerial directive for an early start of work. The project is back on track and so is the original consultancy firms contract. The entire episode shows two fatal flaws from which our government policies suffer. One is the lack of respect for continuity in ongoing plans and projects.
Like so many other projects in the past, every new government, or at least bureaucrats serving under it, find it necessary to stop programmes initiated by their predecessors, without a thought to urgency and merit aspects of a given scheme. Had the previous government stayed on, it is highly unlikely that the KWSB MD would have cancelled the contract for the setting up of effluent plants.
The new government did not do any good either when it decided to revive the project by suggesting that a foreign firm be hired along with the local one to do the job. The other flaw is peculiar to the subject at hand. It is a non-serious attitude towards environmental issues. One does not need to be an environmental expert to know that industrial effluents pose a grave health hazard to human beings as well as flora and fauna.
The issue needs to be addressed for its own sake. Additionally, the western countries do not allow import of products from industries that do not comply with internationally accepted standards of pollution control. Which apparently is the reason why the previous government had decided to install effluent treatment plants in Karachis industrial areas. Too much time has been wasted in procrastination. It is about time the Sindh government gives the project the priority it deserves.