Press Releases

Islamabad, 13 October, 2021: Record of Discussions (R/D) on the details of implementation of the captioned technical cooperation project was signed and exchanged among Mr. FURUTA Shigeki, Chief Representative, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Pakistan Office, Mr. Jabbar Anwar Chaudhry, Managing Director, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Faisalabad, Dr. Shahinshah Faisal Azim, Director General, Faisalabad Development Authority, Mr. Umar Farooq, Additional Secretary (Technical) H ousing, Urban Development & Public Health Engineering Department, Government of the Punjab, Mr. Shafique Ahmed, Member (Social Infrastructure), Planning & Development Board, Government of the Punjab and Ms. Syeda Adeela Bokhari, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Mr. Mujahid Sherdil, Secretary, Planning and Development Board (Center), Mr. Umar Farooq, Additional Secretary (Technical), HUD&PHED (Right), Managing Director, WASA Faisalabad (Left) at the signing ceremony

Mr. FURUTA Shigeki, Chief Representative, JICA Pakistan signing on the R/D

This project has been formulated based on the Master Plan in 2019 for 20 years for the future of water supplies, sewerage and drainage in Faisalabad, which JICA assisted WASA Faisalabad to establish. Under the project, the capacity of WASA Faisalabad to implement efforts for improving business management will be enhanced. In order to achieve this project purpose, the project will support activities such as 1) formulating and executing water supply service improvement plans, 2) improving efficiency of business operations, 3) carrying out customer related works to increase revenue, 4) financial improvement and 5) creating business improvement plan. For experiencing practical field works, appropriate counterpart personnel will be sent to Japan for intensive training. For the effective implementation of the Project, necessary equipment such as pipes and water meters will be procured by the Project. The beneficiaries of the Project will be staff of WASA Faisalabad and ultimately consumers of WASA Faisalabad.

In the signing ceremony, Mr. FURUTA Shigeki and Mr. Mujahid Sherdil, Secretary, Planning and Development Board, the Government of Punjab had opening remarks. Both emphasized that the capacity of WASA Faisalabad will be enhanced toward improvement of the business management situation.

Mr. FURUTA also mentioned that, in addition to this technical cooperation, the new grant aid project "Project for the Improvement of Water Treatment Plant and Water Distribution System in Faisalabad" is now ongoing. It is expected that both projects will collaborate and generate a synergistic effect toward improvement of water supply services, customer satisfaction and tariff revenue in the area. This will be a model case in the jurisdiction of WASA-Faisalabad. We hope that this model case will be replicable in other areas in Faisalabad, and WASA-Faisalabad will be the model case in Pakistan ultimately.

Through this technical cooperation, the Government of Japan and JICA continues to extend its cooperation in Pakistan for strengthen the capacity of water utilities WASA's the Government of Punjab toward the provision of safe drinking water to the citizens.