Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has directed the Ministry of Special Initiatives to gear up its efforts for early completion of "clean drinking water project for all" (CDWA) project, which envisage setting up of a water treatment plant in each union council across the country.
He said that the government attached high priority to the provision of clean and safe drinking water as planned in the millennium development goals (MDGs) therefore all out efforts should be made to achieve the objective. He expressed these views while chairing a meeting to review the status CDWA under the PM's special initiatives project here at the PM's House on Friday.
Under the plan 6035 plants will be installed at the cost of Rs 7.8 billion. The Prime Minister underscored the need for establishing ownership of the programme, taking all the stakeholders on board, selection of cost effective and efficient technology, which could provide clean drinking water to all at their doorstep.
The meeting was informed that after the completion of CDWI and CDWA, over 82 million people would have access to safe drinking water. The meeting was briefed that 280 clean drinking water plants were already in operation, which was 70 per cent of the project while the remaining 30 per cent were in progress.
The meeting was apprised that the cost of the project will be borne by the federal government but its maintenance will be carried out by the respective provincial governments. The meeting was further informed that a total of 406 plants would be installed throughout the country at Tehsil level.
The breakup of the allocation of these plants is: NWFP 53, Fata 8, Punjab 116, AJK 20, Northern Areas 6, Sindh 101, Islamabad 1 and Balochistan 102 out of which 25 plants in NWFP, 114 in Punjab, 7 in AJK 59 in Sindh, one in Islamabad and 76 plants in Balochistan have already been installed, the meeting was briefed.
The Prime Minister was also briefed about the use of solar technology. He was told that the solar driven system is a stand-alone filtration system for drinking water which is cheap and requires minimum maintenance and operational cost.