LAHORE: To provide safe drinking water to the residents of Walled City of Lahore, the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) signed an MoU with the WWF-Pakistan, under which the later will do a number of activities during the next three years.
Officials said the purpose of the MoU was to ensure effective cooperation between the WWF-Pakistan and WCLA and the MoU was valid for a period of at least three years starting in the month of June, 2016 which may be changed and was extendable with mutual consent in writing by both the organisations.
Under the MoU, the WWF-Pakistan agreed to construct water filtration plants for the provision of safe drinking water at appropriate places inside the Walled City as recommended by the Walled City of Lahore Authority as a part of community, will be taking care for maintaining the quality of water available as the product of water filtration plant for the first year of installation, will be responsible for providing free service, excluding change of filter of the plant for the first year of installation, will be responsible to educate and mobilise communities of Walled City on environmental issues in Pakistan, with the assistance of the Walled City Lahore Authority.
WWF-Pakistan have also agreed to monitor the working of filtration plants for two years, will be responsible for water testing of filtration plants for two years, will assist Walled City of Lahore Authority in finding better solution to water and sanitation issues, will work side by side with Walled City of Lahore Authority for enhancing the overall environmental quality of the walled city in order to increase health and well-being of the communities, will design proposals and projects in collaboration with Walled City of Lahore Authority that will help in making walled city a sustainable urban complex and will make strong partnerships with the representative CBOs of Walled City and Walled City Authority to achieve aforementioned goals in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals as purposed by United Nations.
As per the MoU, WCLA agreed to provide potential sites for water filtration plants that fulfilled the criteria as defined by the WWF-Pakistan in Section 6 of this MoU, to ensure the sustainability of the filtration plant facility during and after the project is completed, will assign active members of the community for the responsibility of the plant, will help in community mobilisation and awareness campaign of WWF-Pakistan, will assist in the monitoring of the plant sites.
The WCLA agreed to ensure that the community provides members for the operational training on the plant equipment for proper functioning of the filtration plant, will assist or carried out the actions suggested by the WWF-Pakistan for enhancing the quality of environment in the Walled City, will become an active partner of Water Stewardship Programme of WWF-Pakistan, will actively assist if any project is proposed with mutual consent of both parties, for increasing the sustainability of walled city as suggested by WWF-Pakistan.
As per the agreement parameters to be considered for the selection of a site included need of potable water availability, suitability of site cooperation and willingness of targeted community, availability of land by the community, availability of electricity and water supply connections and the community agrees to bear the operational cost (water and electricity bills from day one and maintenance from the second year of plant installation) of the plant.
According to the MoU, the WWF-Pakistan shall have the right to terminate the MoU after giving 30 days prior notice in writing to the other partner. If the MoU is terminated by either partner, steps shall be taken to ensure that the termination does not affect any prior obligation, project or activity already in progress.
Director General WCLA Kamran Lashari said the initiative would provide healthy lifestyle to the residents of the walled city. This will be a good source of safe drinking water. “We look forward to more MoUs for such healthy initiatives inside the walled city,”
Asif Zaheer, Director Marketing & Social Mobilisation WCLA said, adding this was a good initiative to work with WWF for the betterment of community of the walled city of Lahore. “We will spread this activity inside the entire walled city of Lahore,” he concluded.
