The KP CM had recently announced to hire double staff for managing water pumping stations in KP. I do not think that this is a good idea and would only amount to hiring additional government employees and costing the government additional revenue in salaries and pensions without improving the service.
The reason is that already each pumping station has two employees working there. But unfortunately, neither of them come to work. There is no attendance checking system for these workers.
Similarly, the water meters are broken in most of these pumping stations and there is no maintenance schedule. The local villagers are told to manage their water flow, but they make mistakes that result in the wastage of precious water.
The government organisation managing water pumps do not have proper checking, measuring or maintenance system, they still use paper registers for record management. Similarly, locals cannot approach the pumping station staff or their boss for any issues that they face or if they want to complain about water wastage, as there is no customer service or complaint registration process. Therefore I would think that the honourable CM should not hire more staff for pumping stations. But instead, he should order the improvement of managing water pumping stations and also check the work of the current staff and replace all those that don’t perform their duties as they should.
SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER
Peshawar
