Rs 54.47 bn earmarked for clean drinking water

LAHORE: With a goal of providing clean drinking water across the province, Punjab government has allocated Rs 54.477 billion in the provincial budget 2017-18, which is 27.73 percent more than the previous year’s budgetary allocations.

In 2013-14, Punjab government had allocated Rs 10.868 billion for this purpose and during the last four years, budget for providing clean drinking water has increased by 428.86 percent, which clearly showed the government’s commitment to resolve this vital issue.

According to the budget document, the government, under its water and sanitation policy, aimed to provide safe drinking water at affordable cost to all citizens. Under the new initiatives and targets of financial year 2017-18, Rs 24.500 billion were allocated for Khadim-e-Punjab Saaf Pani Programme, Rs 9.5 billion for rehabilitation of 781 dysfunctional rural water supply schemes, Rs 1 billion for WASH programme in 11 districts, Rs 1.029 billion for urban sewerage/drainage schemes in Bhakkar, Rs 1.013 billion for Barani districts and Rs 9.840 billion for 2,908 water supply and sanitation schemes across the province.

Out of the total budgetary allocations, Rs 9.187 billion will be spend on 876 ongoing schemes, Rs 23.789 billion on 2,031 new schemes and Rs 24.5 billion on other development schemes (Khadim-e-Punjab Saaf Pani Programme).

The new schemes include 1,254 schemes under the head of local development programme, 739 schemes under Prime Minister SDGs Programme, 25 schemes of rural sewerage and drainage, four each schemes of rural water supply and urban sewerage and one scheme for urban water supply.The budget document said that objectives of this year included improvement of standards of public health, focus on capacity building of local government, reduction of spread of water-borne diseases. It said that in 2016-17 as many as 1,245 water supply and sanitation schemes were included but later due to induction of new schemes through supplementary grant, the number of schemes increased to 1,577 out of which 701 schemes including 225 water supply and 476 sanitation schemes were completed.