Rawalpindi:
The Governor of Punjab officially published a notification for the creation of the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) in the newly created tourist district of Murrier, as well as three additional districts.
In Murrier, a parks and horticulture authority (PHA) is also being created, while the Murrier-Kotli Sattian Development Authority will be established in the two Tehsils hills of the new district to promote and develop tourism. The notification for the latter is expected in September.
With the addition of these three wasa, the total number of these agencies in Punjab has increased to 18, 13 of which were established during the mandate of the current chief, Maryam Nawaz.
In Murrier and the other two newly announced districts, the appointment of directors general and senior officials must be finalized in the next 72 hours. For the MD position, panels of three preselected candidates have already been submitted to the government.
Previously, the WASA offices only worked in five major cities – Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan. In the first phase of the current government, 10 additional wasas were created in Jhelum, Sialkot, Okara, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sargodha, Jhang, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Hafizabad and Sahiwal, which are all now fully operational.
The last extension extends a coverage in Murrier, Gujrat and Sheikhupura, while the proposals were also submitted for the creation of Wasa in three other cities.
The objective of setting up new Wasa and Pha offices is to improve sanitation and drainage systems and improve urban embellishment, thus aligning these cities with the standards of more developed urban centers.
Following this last decision, the three districts of the Rawalpindi – Rawalpindindi, Murrier and Jhelum Division – are now served by Wasa.
Meanwhile, following the announcement of the Wasa and the PHA in Murree, lobbying and political maneuvers began among the officers of Rawalpindi, Jhelum and Lahore for key appointments.
