Rawalpindi: Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) will charge private housing societies for pumping water through tubewells, a news source reported. The societies will also acquire a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) for installing a new tubewell.
RDA Chairman Arif Abbasi said officials of RDA and WASA at a meeting decided to charge as many as 244 private housing societies for extracting water through tubewells.
He added that the decision was taken to overcome the financial crisis and a two-phase policy had been formulated to collect water charges from all legal and illegal housing societies.
Private housing schemes will pay the charges to WASA in the first phase and all government organisations using tubewells will be sent water bills in the second phase. All the housing schemes will be charged for using water from the date they installed electricity in their respective areas.
WASA officials disclosed during the meeting that more than 75,000 households did not pay any fee for water extracted through tubewells. It was decided that a minimum amount of PKR 7,500 per month would be charged from housing societies for a tubewell. The amount would be collected with effect from the last 10 years along with a fine.
RDA would inform the private housing societies of the development through a letter. Keeping in view that the installation of tubewells and water bores is banned, the civic body does not need to take permission from the provincial government.
