By: Jan Odhano
JACOBABAD: A hearing of a case filed by the citizens of Jacobabad on provision of safe drinking water issue was held at the first civil court here at Jacobabad. Legal panel of citizens of Jacobabad and staff of municipal services delivery program MSDP appeared in hearing. The civil judge Jacobabad Imtiaz Ahmed lakher heard the parties. At this occasion officials of MSDP program submitted their response against the petition and said that the funding of water supply scheme from USAID is delayed due to this we are unable to complete the project with in given time and MSDP have completed almost 90% of the water supply scheme and wanted to handover the scheme to municipal committee Jacobabad but unfortunately they are avoiding to take over the charge of scheme. The sole responsibility of the municipality is to provide safe drinking water to citizens but unfortunately besides completion of the scheme the outgoing chairman of municipal committee was avoiding to take the charge of this mega water supply scheme. After the completion of tenure of local government , the district administration now on board to take charge , we are hopeful that before the end of this calendar year will start the scheme in the 100 % city area of Jacobabad.
The scheme was to be completed in 2017 but after 3 years MSDP is not able to complete the project due to this the people of Jacobabad are deprived of safe drinking water. Advocate GM Soomro Shared while arguing on hearing. He further shared the data of remaining areas of the city which are still to be covered by the project and scheme.
The civil judge noticed the non presence of Chief Municipal Officer CMO and representative of district government in the hearing and issued notices to be present at next hearing in the court and submit their response to this court.
It is worth sharing that The municipal services program was started in Jacobabad in 2014 with support and funding of USAID for provision of safe drinking water , sanitation and drainage services to the people of Jacobabad and to be completed in 2017 but after three years it is not completed till now.