Punjab releases Rs1.5bn to sanitation agencies.

RAWALPINDI -- The Punjab government has provided Rs1.5 billion financial support to five Water and Sanitation Agencies (Wasa) across the province including Rawalpindi to meet the extra expenditures after increase in the electricity charges.

Sources told Dawn that the Wasa had informed the government that it was difficult for the civic agencies to run the tube wells and other machinery to provide water to the residents in their respective areas.

In the peak season of summer, they said that the electricity bills put the civic agencies in trouble as the provincial government stopped it to increase the water rates for the consumers in 2010 and it had not increased the water rates since then.

They said the provincial government released Rs1.5 billion for the civic agencies including Rs300 million for Rawalpindi, Rs480 million for Lahore, Rs210 million for Faisalabad, Rs160 million for Gujranwala and Rs350 million for Multan.

They said Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering department had asked the Wasas' managing directors to pay the pending liabilities of power electric companies in their respective divisions.

'The provincial government made it compulsory for the Wasas of Punjab to pay the bills pending till June and submit certificate in this regard by end of the fiscal year,' the senior official of Wasa said.

He said the electricity tariff increased manifold last year and Wasa had no other mean to pay the bills.

He said the tubewells increased in all...