PHE dept provides water supply to 53pc population, drainage facility to 40pc

The Sindh government through Public Health Engineering Department provides drinking water to 16.567 million population which is 53 percent while it drainage schemes cover 12.513 million which constitutes 40 percent of the population.

This was disclosed in a meeting held here under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah here at the CM House. This was the 4rth consecutive meeting on provision of safe drinking water to people of Sindh was held here today. The meeting was attended by Minister PHE dept. Fayaz Butt, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary PHE Tamizuddin Khero and other concerned officers.

The chief minister said that the PHE department is most important in terms of provision of drinking water and responsible for provision of drainage facility. “Just you [PHED] have to manage it in the larger interest of the people of the province, otherwise you have vast network and schemes” he directed the minister and the secretary of PHED.

Secretary PHE Dept. Tamizuddin Khero said that the total quantity of water required for drinking purpose in existing schemes [of PHED} is about 340 mgd, out of which 122 mgd is ground water and the remaining 218mgd is surface water. On this the chief minister said that there was further need of assessing the quantity of ground water and testing its quality.

Secretary PHE dept. Tamizuddin Khero briefing the chief minister said that the government provides water supply to 16.567 million population of rural and urban areas of the province, except Karachi and Hyderabad which become to 53 percent of the population. Similarly, the department had developed drainage network covering 12.513 million population which comes to 40 percent of the total population of the province.

It may be noted that Karachi and Hyderabad urban areas have their own drainage and water supply systems and organization. Therefore, their facilities have not been counted or included here. He said that according to the new population census total population of the provinces comes to 27. 888 million in which 24. 91 million or 52 percent is urban and 22. 975 million or 47.98 percent. The PHE department serves 31. 243 million population which is 65.24 percent all over Sindh.

Minister Population Fayaz Butt said that there is sweet water zone where 184 urban water supply schemes, including 13 RO Plants are working.  They are Ghotki with two schemes, Sukkur four, Khairpur 22, Naushehro Feroze 11, Shaheed Benazirabad , Larkana seven, seven Shikarpur seven, Jacobabad four, Kamber Nine, Kashmore three and Dadu eight. However, four RO plants have been given to Qambar. This shows that through 184 water supply schemes, including 13 RO plants drinking water is provided to 7.922 million population living in the rural areas.

The chief minister said that the ground water quality in the sweet water zone is also deteriorating for which separate measure would be adopted to improve its quality.

RURAL WATER SUPPLY: Given details of other Urban water supply schemes where RO he said Badin has 18 water supply schemes, including six RO plants, Hyderabad two schemes, Jamshoro Six, Mirpurkhas seven, Matiari seven, Sujawal five, Sanghar 14, Thatta six, Umerkot 11, Tando Mohammad Khan three, Tando Allahyar six and Tharparkar six.  This area has population of 7.9 million. Secretary PHE Tamizuddin Khero giving details of rural water supply schemes said that Ghotki has 33 schemes, Sukkur 58, including seven RO plants, Khairpur 119, Nausheroferoze 19, Shaheed Benazirabad 61, Larkana 21, Shikarpur 28, including eight RO plants, Jacobabad 68, Kambar 119 and Kashmore 50, including 29 RO plants, Dadu 147, Badin 204 with 83 RO plants, Hyderabad 93 with 48 RO plants, Jamshoro 219 schemes with 99 RO plants, Karachi 137 with 63 RO plants, Mirpurkhas 165 with 43 RO plants, Matirai 79 schemes with 55 RO plants, Sujawal 54 with 43 RO plants, Sanghar 199 with 106 RO plants, Thatta 170 with 84 RO plants, Umerkot 148 with 53 RO plants, TM Khan 75 schemes with 51 RO plants, Tando Allahyar 97 with 64 RO plants and Tharparkar with 786 schemes 703 RO plants. It means the 1507 RO plants and 800 water supply schemes (ground water and river water) is provided to 8.645 million population of Urban areas of the province.

URBAN DRAINANGE: The chief minister was told that in the Urban areas of the province, six drainage schemes of 8.474 mgd are working in Ghotki , six of 13.026 mgd in Sukkur, 22 of 16.319 mgd in Khairpur, 11 of 7 mgd in naushehroferoze, 10 of 10.299 mgd Shaheed Benazirabad,seven of 16.354 Larkana,  seven of 6.368 mgd in Shikarpur, five of 6.240 mgd in Jacobabad, nine of 6.501 mgd u=in Kambar, seven of 5.326 mgd in Kashmore, eight of 8.068 mgd in Dadu, 12 of 9.3 mgd in Badin, two of 0.304 mgd Hyderabad, six of 3.017 mgd of jamshoro, six of 10.242 mgd Mirpurkhas, seven of 4.69 mgd in Sujawal, 14 of 12.582 mgd in Snaghar, five of 4.188 mgd Thatta, eight of 4.138 mgd Umerkot, three of 3.381 mgd in TM Khan, six of 4.627 Tando Allahyar and six of 1.615 mgd of Tharparkar. This shows that 177 schemes of 159.556 mgd draining away waste water of 7.720 million urban population living in 24 districts.

RURAL DRAINAGE: The meeting was also informed about 948 rural drainage schemes taking away 91.334 mgd waste water of 4.793 million population. The detail are as follows:

Badin has 30 schemes of 0.981 mgd, Hyderabad 28 of 1.192 mgd, Jamshoro 15 of 1.795 mgd, Karachi 41 of 9.436 mgd, Mirpurkhas 29 of 11.676 mgd, Matiari has 42 schemes of 28.590 mgd, Sujawal seven of 0.225 mgd, Sanghar 43 of 1.732 mgd, Thatta nine of 0.652 mgd, TM Khan 15 of 1.203 mgd and Tharparkar one of 0.020 mgd.  Ghotki has 48 schemes of 2.595 mgs, Sukkur 43 of 2.249 mgd, Khairpur168 of 6.567 mgd, N’feroze 62 of 4.077 mgd, SBA 76 of 3.590 mgd, Larkana 86 of 3.824 mgd, Shikarpur72 of 3.966mgd, Jacobabad 22 schemes of 0.848 mgd, Kamber 52 of 2.851 mgd, Kashmore six of 0.339 mgd and Dadu 39 schemes of 2.222 mgd.

The chief minister appreciating the vast network of services of PHE department in water supply and drainage said that he has reports that various schemes of PHED need to be rehabilitated. On this the PHE dept. secretary said that he has proposed 1671 schemes for overhauling.

The department has proposed his department has worked a plan for new 2225 water supply and drainage schemes for Rs97 billion. On this the chief minister directed him to work out a priority list and then float a summary for approval.