LAHORE: Minister for Housing Punjab Asad Khokhar has directed the Water and Sanitation Agencies (WASAs) to disconnect all illegal water and sewer connections across the province without any further delay.

He also sought proposals and recommendations to overcome their financial deficit. He was presiding over a meeting of WASA and Parks and Horticulture Authorities (PHAs) here in the committee room of Housing Department on Monday.

The minister directed the authorities to develop water treatment plants in order to check wastage of water. Managing directors (MDs) of WASA Rawalpindi, Multan, Gujranwala were present in the meeting, while DG PHA Lahore, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Multan, Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, DG Khan participated through video-link.

The minister issued instructions for changing the faulty and dilapidated water pipelines and making all-out efforts for redress of public complaints and grievances on urgent basis. Asad Khokhar asked the officials to keep focus on revenue collection targets and get it achieved 100 per cent. The minister ordered for launching a crackdown on big defaulters for recovery of dues. He sought proposals to make projects for recharging of groundwater.

Briefing the meeting, DG PHA Jawad Ahmad Qureshi said that PHA Lahore was working according to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan for promotion of tree culture and clean and green Pakistan. He stated that 90,000 samplings had been distributed door-to-door in Lahore while geo-tagging of plants had also been completed which would be helpful to monitor the growth and different species of plants. The minister appreciated the efforts of PHA Lahore and asked the other authorities to follow it.