The inordinate delay in the replacement of decades-old water supply system by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is not only creating water shortage but also causing contamination of water.
“Owing to seepage from broken water supply pipelines in the city, citizens are getting polluted water. They are also forced to get water from the tube-wells the civic authority has set up at the banks of polluted streams, which is also causing contamination of water,” said a senior official of the CDA.
The official also said the CDA’s Water Quality Control Cell did not conduct chlorination of tube-wells’ water and did not check its quality.
The CDA’s directorate concerned had conducted a research on water in the city, which revealed that the citizens were getting contaminated water due to broken water supply lines and the water being generated from tube-wells as well as from other resources contained pollutants.
The official said that the CDA in its annual budgets allocated huge funds for visible development projects like roads and underpasses, but it paid no heed to invisible projects such as upgradation and replacement of decades-old water supply system.
He added around two years ago, the water supply directorate had made a plan to replace and upgrade the old water supply pipelines in the city. Under the plan, the CDA was to start work on the project in 2009 and complete it by 2012 on engineering, planning and construction (EPC) basis. But the CDA’s big bosses continuously ignored this vital project and, later, sent it to the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) for allocation of funds or arrange donors to finance the project, he said
It was further learnt that, under the CDA plan, the whole water supply system of Islamabad was to be replaced in developed sectors as well as new ones. “These old water supply lines cause around 50 percent waste of water,” said the official, adding that majority of water supply lines in the city, especially in the less developed sectors, including 1-9,1-8,I-10 and I-11, were not only causing wastage of huge amount of water but also posing hygiene problems,” he said.
He added, “Every summer season the residents register numerous complaints with the CDA regarding water shortage, but the authorities pay no attention to it.
Due to the broken water supply lines, people mostly in the less develop sectors were forced to drink contaminated water while many people had to spend huge amount on potable water, he concluded.