Groundwater contaminated across Sindh: CM

The groundwater in almost all the areas of Sindh has been contaminated and the Sindh government has approached donor agencies and experts to address the issue.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said this on Saturday when he presided over various meetings to finalise the uplift and development portfolio of the provincial government for the next financial year.

The provincial government had been constructing water supply and drainage schemes in the rural areas of the province, he said during a meeting related to the public health engineering (PHE) department. He added that the government was also working on another project to improve the quality of groundwater.

The CM said the Manchhar Lake had been contaminated and the government was in contact with the World Bank and European donor and expert agencies to initiate a project to clean up the lake.

The meeting was attended by Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, Planning and Development Board Chairperson Naheed Shah, PHE Secretary Roshan Shaikh, Local Government Secretary Khalid Hyder Shah, Special Secretary Finance Asif Jahangir and others.

Murad told the meeting that the groundwater all over Sindh, except a few districts, used to be sweet and fresh but with the passage of time, its quality deteriorated, as a result of which the government had to switch over to reverse osmosis (RO) plants to meet the need of drinking water in rural areas.

“The actual solution to the problem lies in adopting scientific approach for improving the quality of groundwater for which I am working with World Bank and other agencies to launch a comprehensive plan to refresh and revive the aquifers,” he said.

The CM said the PHE Department was a very important department due to its services of providing efficient water supply and drainage schemes in the rural areas of the province. “I want that the department should complete its ongoing schemes so that people could benefit from them,” he said.

The PHE secretary told the CM that in the next financial year, 169 schemes, including 96 ongoing and 169 new ones, would be completed at an estimated cost of Rs26.7 billion. He added that the ongoing schemes to be completed during the current calendar year included 39 water supply and 57 drainage schemes. The new 28 water supply and 15 drainage schemes would be completed in the next financial year but in the current calendar year, he maintained.

Local government

Ghani informed the CM that by the end of the ongoing financial year, his department would be completing 100 schemes worth Rs13.5 billion.

Murad said for the next financial year, he would announce some important schemes for Karachi including roads, flyovers and beautification of important places. He added that projects would also be announced for the rural areas of Karachi in the next Annual Development Programme.

Education

Chairing the meeting for the education department, the CM was informed by Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah that there were 9,600 schools without building, 71 of which had enrolment of only up to 100 students.

To this, the CM took a policy decision and announced that the schools without buildings that had enrolment of around 40 students should be shifted to a nearby government school.

“The school which has less than 40 students cannot be termed as [shelter-less] school, therefore such schools may be deleted from the list of the shelter-less schools,” Murad said.

The chief minister also directed the education department to focus on teachers training programmes. “Our teachers must be well-trained so that their teaching skills can be developed,” he said. Taking another decision, the CM directed the department to reconstruct 160 dilapidated school buildings that had been termed dangerous. “Some schools buildings have become too old; therefore, their reconstruction or revamping should be ensured,” he said.

Works and services

At the meeting of the works and services department, the CM was told there were 349 schemes of the department, including new schemes worth Rs33.5 billion, against which Rs26.5 billion had been released and 90 per cent of the released funds had been utilised.

Works and Services Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said 326 schemes were of highways and 14 of Thar Coal that included the road schemes transferred by the Thar Coal administration to the works department, while three schemes had been transferred by the special initiatives department. He added that the construction of six buildings was also in progress.

The minister maintained that of the 349 schemes, 108 schemes, including one building, would be completed by the end of the current financial year and the remaining would be done during the next financial year.

Irrigation

The CM was informed that 56 schemes worth Rs18.1 billion of the irrigation department would be completed by the end of the current financial year.

To a question, Nasir, who is also the minister for irrigation, said some of the schemes to be completed included the construction of a recharge dam across Angai-II Nai located in central Kohistan, construction of three recharge dams, Dilan, Naig and Mazarrani, in upper Kohistan, construction of two small dams at Acar Salar Goth Bin Qasim, construction of stone pitching/ retaining wall of Rohri Canal near Ranipur, construction of bridge over LBOD main Sim Nala and construction of drain from Haji Ali Ahmad Mahri to TM Khan.

The CM said he would pay a surprise visit of some of the schemes just after the approval of the budget.