"Clean Drinking Water for All" (CDWA) Project, planned for 40 districts of the country, has not been completed even after a mandatory period of five years, while after dissolution of Federal Special Initiative Ministry, the important project has become a distant dream for more than 30 million people.
During a survey, people of the flood-affected and those areas where drinking water is not available, alleged that after the collapse of the project, water mafia will reap the harvest, while drinking water will only be available at rupees 100 per litre in the forthcoming years.
Most of the people opined that the mafia is trying to cave web around government's administrative machinery to extract rupees 100 per litre of water in forthcoming years, while Pakistan's 10th Millennium Development Goals state that by year 2015, proportion of people would be without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation under UNO Charter.
They pointed out that every year, federal, provincial and city district governments, Water and Sanitation Agency authorities, Tehsil administration committees and union councils-level budgets of billions of rupees are approved but 60 percent of population remains deprived of water.
It was recalled that finance department of Punjab government has admitted that federal government transferred an amount of Rs 850 million during the current fiscal for water filtration, but the ongoing work on CDWA project came to a halt, giving no benefit to the original beneficiaries of the project.
They added that it is also surprising that bottlers in the country are dishing out clean water extracted from ground at Rs 30 per litre, whereas under CDWA project, the cost per litre comes to 10paisa only. "Clean Drinking Water for All" Project was started in year 2006 and was to be completed in November 2010 to provide clean drinking water to the residents of 40 districts of Pakistan.