Power outages aggravate water crisis

Shortage of water in Islamabad has increased manifold amid increase in duration of electricity load shedding.
The sectors of I-8, I-10, G-10 and G-11 are facing acute scarcity of water resource while some areas do not get water supply at all. The CDA approved a separate feeder for tube-wells, but Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) is not maintaining a constant supply of electricity, they added.
The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce has also protested against electricity load shedding and the IESCO has ensured to eliminate the menace of unscheduled power outages within three days. Officials of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) shared the stance that those areas of the city are affected to which water was supplied through tube-wells. The CDA officials further said the complaints of citizens with regard to shortage of water has risen over 1300 per day, owing to which the CDA has increased the number of water tankers to 25.
Despite its efforts, the CDA is able to attend to 900 complaints while the remaining go unattended, officials observed.
On the other hand, water in Khanpur Dam, the dam which supplies water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi, has almost reached dead level. Water level in Khanpur Dam has reached a height of 1920 acres feet while the dead level is 1,913 acres feet high. As a result, the supply of water to the twin cities will be affected further.
Water engineer of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board, Ateeq Ahmed, said in an interview that water level has lowered due to extremely hot temperature, and water in tube wells has also decreased. He requested the citizens not to waste water by washing cars or otherwise. He added the RCB would continue water supply from Khanpur Dam and tube wells.
Meanwhile, the officials of the CDA, Cantonment Board, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) and the irrigation department have held a meeting to discuss the water problem. Representatives of WASA, Cantonment Board and the CDA have rejected the suggestion of decreasing water supply further. Consequently, water supply to the irrigation department has decreased from 80 million cusecs to 40 million cusec.