WATER & SEWERAGE SYSTEMS STUDY TOUR 10-MAN SINDH TEAM LEAVES FOR ARMENIA TODAY
Business Recorder
October 20, 2009 Tuesday
A 10-member delegation of North Sindh Urban Services Company (NSUSC)
will leave here on October 20 on a two-day tour of Armenia to study
water supply and sewerage systems in that country. The delegation
will comprise four officials, two taluka nazims, and four members
of NSUSC Board. Engr M A Jabbar, who is a member of the Board, would
accompany as representative of private sector.
The tour has been arranged by AAsian Development Bank (ADB). Sindh
government has constituted the NSUSC for improving municipal water
supply and sewerage systems in northern Sindh. The public sector, in
the absence of private sector, has not been able to deliver services of
the quality against which the purchasing of the same is made possible
by the consumers of the services.
In the overall development dimension of the services provided by
public sector up till now, a massive investment of resources has not
been able to put the services for a just and fair rating to satisfy
the end users. The water supply and sanitation under the public health
engineering in all districts of Sindh, except Karachi, which is handled
by Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB), is also in a dismal state.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has been providing assistance
and loans to the developing countries for improving the water supply
and sanitation in order to reconcile with the millennium development
goals (MDGs), has also focused on Sindh for the need to improve the
services for the civil society including improvement of water supply
and sanitation in Sindh. To start with, the northern part of Sindh
which includes major urban cities like Sukkur, Khairpur and Larkana
would benefit from the new structural arrangements by forming a
company to work on the pattern of corporate structure with payoffs
against better pay and the better work.
ADB has already provided assistance for such structural transformation
in various countries including Armenia, providing sustainable water
supply and sanitation services in seven provinces to improve public
health and environment. Armenia is a landlocked mountainous country in
southern Caucasus (Transcaucasus), bordered by Turkey in the west,
Georgia in the north, Azerbaijan in the east, and Iran and the
Nakhichevan exclave of Azerbaijan to the south. A former republic
of Soviet Union, Armenia is one of the oldest and most historic
civilisations in the world.