Initiative taken for life improvement in Sindh cities

KARACHI (APP) - Sindh Government has taken an initiative to improve the quality of life in intermediate cities of Sindh.
As a first step the focus has been made on improvement of urban services like water supply, sanitation and Solid Waste Management. North Sindh Urban Services Corporation, one of the three corporations to be set up in the Province, has formally been established.
Its Managing Director and Chief Finance Officer were appointed Thursday at a ceremony held at Planning and Develoment department Additional Chief Secretary (Development), Munawar Opel in the chair. Among others, Naheed Shah Durrani, Special Secretary Finance, Dr Noor ul Haq, Chief Economist and Mohammad Hanif Channa, Project Director Sindh Cities Improvement Program were also present on the occasion.
This was the first time in Pakistan that a corporate urban services utility has been established and incorporated with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to provide better water supply & sanitation, and solid waste management (SWM) services.
It aims to provide 24 hour water supply and better sewerage and waste water management services in smaller cities in the Province. Along with this, some sanitary landfill sites will also be built in the secondary cities for the first time to cater for proper handling of solid and medical waste in the province.
The Corporation will be Sukkur based, initially covering six participating TMAs - Sukkur, New Sukkur, Rohri, Larkana, Khairpur and Shikarpur while other adjoining towns will join the Corporation next year.
The Corporation’s Head office will be operational by the end of November, 2009.
On the occasion a Tripartite Financing Agreement was also signed for financing the program being assisted by Asian Development Bank (ADB).