Over-exploiting underground water won’t yield pretty results
Among the multitude of departments and divisions operating in the provincial capital, there is not one trying to deal with the city’s receding water table due to overcrowding, even as city authorities keep granting approval for new housing schemes.
Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has so far approved around 241 private housing schemes and is poised to approve even more as the population pressure continues to grow. Additionally, there are many non-approved housing schemes operating in the city. On the other hand, no attention is being paid to management of clean drinking water as Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) and commercial and domestic users keep pumping out more water every day to meet the needs of the residents.
WASA operates over 500 hundreds tub-wells which pump out water for 16 hours a day, while numerous illegal turbines fitted in housing schemes pump out water in violation of law.
WASA DMD Operation Muhammad Asghar told Pakistan Today that it was not WASA’s responsibility to manage the water in city as it had to pump out water to meet the immediate needs of the city. WASA officials claimed that water table in the city had not receded to critical levels and that the Agency was pumping out water at a depth of 650 feet.
A report of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Pakistan in its report titled Situation Analysis of the Water Resources of Lahore revealed that due to excessive pumping, water table depth in the central part of the Lahore had receded by 40 meters and projected that it could recede to 70 meters in most areas of the city within the next 10 years.
The report says that due to excessive extraction, the groundwater table is depleting by about 0.55m (1.5 ft) every year. It added that river Ravi contributed 82 per cent underground water recharge highlighting the importance of the river in sustaining Lahore’s aquifer.
DO Environment Dr Naseem told Pakistan Today that there was currently insufficient water in river Ravi also to replenish the aquifer. He said that WASA, LDA and the Environment department needed to develop a joint strategy to maintain the water table, as that was the only way for the city to avoid a massive disaster in not too distant a future. He called upon the chief minister to act on the information he had already been provided by the Environment depart regarding the situation.
He said that a water bill was pending with the Punjab Assembly which should be passed as the bill proposed some good things. He also said that WASA should work on the metering system to regulate water use and avoid its waste.