To overcome water scarcity, Water and Sanitation Authority (Wasa) has decided to install over 7 million new smart water meters on both domestic and commercial connections at a cost of Rs 10.353 billion.

According to sources, here on Saturday, the process of installing smart meters on 711,265 commercial and domestic connections will be completed in two years. Recently, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar gave the green signal during a meeting of Public-Private Partnership Cell of Planning and Development Board Punjab.

In this connection, Wasa Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz said that the customers will not be burdened to pay the cost of the new meters in one go; "in fact, our partners from private sector will bear 80 percent of the cost while the Punjab government will meet the remaining 20 percent of total cost of the smart meter. "The cost of the smart meter will be recovered from the users on 10 years installments," he added.

After the installation of the smart meters, the Wasa expects to minimize the losses it faces due to non-meter billing and thus it will be able tap 40 percent revenue that it loses due wastage of water. It is also hoping to control illegal water connections and water wastage incurred by the domestic users.

A recent study conducted by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said that around 40 percent of water produced in the provincial metropolis was not contributing to any revenue generation. It observed that the Wasa's current water supply system was based on the over exploration of ground water and un-metered water supply due to which water losses are enormous.