Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has given a nod to launch $1.6 billion Karachi Water & Sewerage Improvement Programme (KWSIP) to make Water board, operationally, financially and institutionally viable.
He took this decision while presiding a meeting to launch a well-conceived water board's improvement programme here at CM House. The meeting was attended by Minister Local Government Syed Nasir Shah, Chairperson P&D Nahid Shah, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, Chief P&D Naeem Zafar, DG KW&SB Asadullah Khan, PD KWSIP Ayoub Shaikh and other concerned officers.
The chief minister said that the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank sponsored KWSIP was being launched to raise KW&SB operational capacity to deliver all of its customers safe and reliable water service on sustainable and predictable basis. Through the project an environment would be established for private sector investment in water supply and wastewater treatment.
The KWSIP is a $1.6 billion project in which World Bank share is 40 percent and 40 percent funds will be provided by Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the provincial government will pay 20 percent.
There are four components of four phases of the project. The component one is about reforms, second of securing sustainable water supply and sanitation and third component is about project management and studies.
The chief minister directed Minister Local Government to sign Commitment of Cooperation within next few days so that project could be started. He approved steering committee to monitor implementation of the project.
The reform in KW&SB includes overhauling HR policy and service rules, improve communication strategy, capacity building, budget, financial management, improvement in revenue collection and improving customers relations.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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