Japan provides $39m for water supply system in Faisalabad

ISLAMABAD: Japan has agreed to provide grants worth 4.1 billion Japanese Yen (Equivalent to around USD39 million/around PKR 6.2 billion) for improvement of water treatment plant and water distribution system in the Faisalabad city, Punjab.

Notes to this effect were signed and exchanged between Matsuda Kuninori, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, and Noor Ahmed, Secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs in Islamabad. The Grant Agreement (G/A) on the details of implementation of the project was signed and exchanged between Furuta Shigeki, Chief Representative, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Pakistan Office, and Ms Syeda Adeela Bokhari, Joint Secretary (Japan/NGO/INGO), Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Before this grant project, JICA assisted the Water and Sanitation Agency, Faisalabad (WASA-F) to formulate the Master Plan in 2019, targeting the next 20 years of future water supplies, sewerage and drainage in Faisalabad. In this Master Plan project, pilot projects were conducted to improve the water supply services by establishing management system of water distribution, including activities such as developing DMA (District Metered Area), reducing NRW (Non-Revenue Water) and so on.

This grant project has been formulated based on the prioritised project listed in the Master Plan, aiming not only to increase the water supply capacity for the currently unserved 50,000 inhabitants, but also to expand the output of the pilot projects in the grant project’s target area (Abudulah Pur and Madina Town No.2). In particular, the Old Jhal Khanuana Water Treatment Plant will be renewed and the water transmission and distribution facilities will also be rehabilitated in Faisalabad city under grant aid cooperation. Furthermore, JICA is also planning to assist WASA-F through a new technical cooperation project for improving their management capacity.

Through this continuous assistance, WASA-F is expected to be a role model in Pakistan that can keep a virtuous cycle of enhancing water supply service level, improving customer satisfaction, improving tariff revenue, and improving financial condition of WASA-F for future investment leading further to better services. This “Faisalabad model” would become a replicable model for other cities in the future.