Wasa directors urged to check missing manhole covers

LAHORE:Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) has directed all its field formations to carry out surveys of their respective jurisdictions to check any missing manhole covers.

These directions were passed by Wasa’s Deputy Managing Director (DMD) Ghafran Ahmed while chairing a departmental meeting here on Wednesday. He said every director should carry out a comprehensive survey of his area and submit report of all manholes on daily basis.

The DMD directed the officers concerned to cover the manholes where there were no covers to prevent any major accidents. “If a manhole cover disappears in an area, the Director and XEN concerned will be held responsible and a case of attempted murder will be registered against those who stole the covers,” he maintained. Ghafran further directed all the Directors to complete ongoing development projects in their jurisdictions in time. He said all officers should give top priority to desalting work in their areas. The meeting was attended by Director Data Ganj Bakhsh Town Sohail Sindhu, Director Jubilee Town M Danish, Director Shalimar Town Adeel Sharif and Director Ravi Town Hafiz Raheel.

MoU signed: NESPAK has signed a Long-Term Agreement (LTA) with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for providing engineering and design services on a call-off contract basis in countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

The types of projects required to be undertaken under LTA include rehabilitation of hospitals, schools and roads, retrofitting of buildings, sewerage & drainage, vehicular access roads and bridges, buildings, rehabilitation of governmental buildings, small scale hydropower plants, small scale solar power plants, wells, water harvesting, irrigation and catchment control, health clinics, medical centers and marine/coastal infrastructure.

Managing Director NESPAK Dr Tahir Masood stated that the NESPAK scope of services includes data collection, surveys and investigations, detailed design, tender documentation and construction supervision of above-mentioned projects to be financed by a variety of UNDP partners.

Meanwhile, NESPAK also entered into an agreement with United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for providing engineering consultancy services for Strategic Grain Reserve-Food Department, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. NESPAK scope of work includes project planning, topographic survey, geotechnical investigations, detailed design, tender documentation and construction supervision of prefabricated warehouses to be constructed at Sakhakot, Malakand.