LAHORE - The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has planned to set up 6 waste water treatment plants to cleanse 1437 cusecs sewerage water of the entire City at a cost of Rs 1 billion in phases. The wastewater treatment plants will be established at Mehmood Booti (North), Shadbagh, Babu Sabhu (South West), Nishtar Colony (South East), Mohlanwal (South) and Farkhabad (Shahdara). The Planning and Development (P&D) Department has approved PC-1 of waste water treatment plant at Babu Sabhu at the cost of Rs 8,917 million. French authorities have agreed to provide financial assistance of Rs 7,518 million for treating 150 cusecs waste water while rest of the loan Rs 1,399 million will be provided by local company to treat 312 cusecs sewerage water. The total treating capacity of the plant will be 462 cusecs. The Wasa has acquired 7300 kanal land to establish Babhu Sahbu wastewater treatment plant. The authority concerned has also acquired 200 kanal for establishing South East Plant at Hadiara drain near Ferozepure Road. The Punjab Environmental Protection Department has issued NoC after reviewing the environmental impact assessment report submitted by the Wasa. The Wasa has also started working to acquire 1500 kanal land for Shadbagh waste water treatment plant with 270 cusecs capacity, 130 kanal land for Mehmood Bhooti waste water treatment plant with 275 cusecs capacity, 1200 kanal land for Shahdara plant to treat 120 cusecs waste water and 1000 kanal for South Plant to treat 100 cusecs sewerage water. Wasa (Planning and Evaluation) Director Zahid Aziz told The Nation on Wednesday that UK consultants had conducted the study in 1987 to treat wastewater. They presented their final report in 1995 and suggested to set up waste water treatment plants at 6 places. He said that JICA had also initiated a work to provide its financial and technical assistance to establish waste water treatment plants. On a question, he said that local companies had also come forward to build the plants, and the P&D had given a go-ahead signal to an indigenous company to start its work on Mehmood Bhooti waste water treatment plant.