Lahore: The Water & Sanitation Agency (WASA) has announced to install smart water meters across Punjab to curb illegal connections and water wastage, a news source reported. To facilitate this measure, the agency will install more than seven million new meters on both domestic and commercial connections in the province at a cost of PKR 10.353 billion.
WASA plans to complete the process of installing 711, 265
meters in two years. In a recent meeting of the Public-Private Partnership Cell
of Planning & Development Board, Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Sardar Usman
Buzdar provided his approval to the project.
WASA Managing Director (MD) Syed Zahid Aziz stated that
customers would not have to pay the cost of the meters in one go. He added that
the public sector partners would pay 80% of the cost and the provincial government
would incur the remaining 20% amount. He revealed that consumer would pay the
cost of the meters in instalments over a period of 10 years.
With the installation of the smart meters, WASA aims to minimise it losses due to non-meter billing. In this way, the agency will tap into 40% of its revenue it loses due to water wastage. WASA also expects to control illegal water connections and water wastage related to domestic users with these efforts.
A recent Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study
revealed that 40% water produced in Lahore did not contribute to any revenue generation.
It further stated that WASA’s current water supply system worked on over-exploration
of ground water and un-metered water supply; addingthat this kind of system led
to significant water losses.
