WSSP wants to operate in 23 more UCs

PESHAWAR: Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP) has sent a summary to the KP government for including 23 more union councils (UCs) of Peshawar in its area of operation which is awaiting the cabinet approval.

Currently, WSSP is operating in 43 urban union councils covering 145 sq km area while Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) is providing the same services in two union councils in Hayatabad.

The WSSP was established in 2014 for providing drinking water, sanitation and solid waste management services to the residents of the provincial metropolis.

The sanitation company has 81, 000 registered consumers and serving around 2 million people while the inclusion of 23 UCs would increase the covered population by 1.3 million.

WSSP Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Hassan Nasir told The News that the company was working to increase the consumers to raise revenue.

He said currently, the WSSP was collecting Rs 400 per month from each registered domestic consumer. “Such a small number of consumers in the city is a challenge for us but we are working on it to identify areas for more registration,” he went on to add.

He said the company could also include industrial consumers, including wedding halls and service stations.

However, the CEO added that the WSSP was yet to achieve its target as some of these commercial consumers had filed cases in courts.

Hassan Nasir said the WSSP had the powers to disconnect water supply to the consumers in case of non-payment of bills but lacked magisterial powers to take action against illegal connections or irresponsible attitude to waste disposal.

He said that granting magisterial powers to WSSP was under process. “Once these powers are given to the WSSP, it would be a major step for our revenue generation,” he added.

Hassan Nasir said that the company was holding talks with local elders in areas where the company was not supplying water but collected waste to help the company register consumers for paying bills.

He said besides WSSP, PDA, TMAs, Cantonment Board Peshawar and Public Health Engineering were operating in Peshawar for almost the same services.

To a question about the waste dumping sites of these bodies, he said that they were not using the WSSP waste disposal points and maybe dumping waste at some other places.

The WSSP chief said the track of Pakistan Railways passes through Peshawar and they have own cleanliness system for the track but added that WSSP had recently completed the cleanliness of the shops along the track in Karkhano market in the larger public interest.

He said that WSSP had no proper mechanism for charging these bodies when it performs cleaning activities in their jurisdiction. “Sometimes we get paid but other times our bills are not cleared,” he added.

The WSSP chief said responsibility of waste collection and water supply to private housing societies should be figured out at the time of awarding a no-objection certificate to the builders.