Of the 527 district-based water and sanitation projects that the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS) is working on, only 115 are slated for completion by the fiscal year 2007-08. With the commencement of 227 new projects in addition to the 148 old ones, the government has continued with its trend of adding new projects in order to satisfy various interest groups rather than completing the ongoing projects to bring real benefits to the people at the grassroots level. Hence the bulk of Rs 1.2 billion allocated for the projects this year is also likely to be gobbled up by sinecures crafted for personal or partisan interests.

Meanwhile, the perennial blame game between the Ministry of Finance and DWSS continues. MoF is accused of not releasing enough funds for the projects. The Finance Ministry, for its part, is quick to point a finger at the inefficiency of DWSS to properly use even the available resources. But the sad fact remains that the people whom these projects were meant to serve are being duped time and again. It goes without saying that pouring money into new projects without completing old ones is a sign of poor planning, lack of accountability and indifference to the concerns of common people. Hence unless there is a mechanism to ensure greater accountability in these projects and rigorous pre-project assessment to study their feasibility, only the money-minded bureaucrats and politicians and their cronies will benefit.