- ‘Supplying drinking water to citizens not the priority of MCI’
ISLAMABAD: Due to ill-planning by the civic management, Islamabad is getting less than 40 per cent of water it needs and this too in urban areas only, it emerged on Thursday.
Capital Development Authority (CDA) Member Planning and Design and Chief Metropolitan Officer (CMO) Asad Mehboob Kayani said, “Presently, less than 50 million gallons per day (mgd) is being delivered to the residents of Islamabad from all available resources.” He added, “I am worried that the situation may worsen in near future as we don’t have a plan to overcome the situation.”
The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) is working to fix the leakages in main water supply lines laid underground decades ago, which may help the authority to save some water for the residents of the federal capital, he said.
An official of MCI told Pakistan Today that there are 180 tube wells, which are the third source of water supply in the capital, and 160 of them are functional. “However, due to lowering of water level, one-quarter of the tube wells are not pumping water and are good for nothing,” said Kayani.
From Simli Dam, only 19mgd is being withdrawn out of its 38mgd capacity whereas 3mgd is being supplied to the citizens from Khanpur Dam out of its 12mgd capacity.
The situation is dire since water supply from Khanpur Dam was curtailed due to annual de-silting/cleaning, and maintenance of left bank canal of Khanpur Dam is being carried out from February 1-10. On account of that, authorities had notified that water supply to Islamabad and Rawalpindi will remain curtailed from January 31 to February 12 from existing 8mgd to 3mgd in Islamabad and 12mgd to 4mgd in Rawalpindi.
It is to be noted that the acute water shortage looms over the capital as the water levels in both Simly and Khanpur reservoirs are also decreasing almost three inches every day.
Speaking to Pakistan Today, MCI opposition leader Ali Awan said that providing water to citizens is not the priority of federal government and MCI. “Out of 36 water tankers, only 18 are on the road and the rest are faulty,” he informed.
He said that this is the sheer negligence of the civic management that 106mgd water is required in sectoral areas of capital, and a maximum of 35mgd is being provided through all the resources, which raises many eyebrows.
He said that in the next session, the opposition will raise this issue of supreme importance. He also pointed out that only 150 tube wells were functional.
MCI is providing water to only 18 union councils (UC) of the urban area, however, 32 UCs of rural areas are struggling hard to find drinking water, he said. “In Islamabad, 74 per cent water which is being provided by the civic management is contaminated as most sewage lines are being mixed up with the water supply lines underground, causing hepatitis in 24 per cent population of the capital, which is alarming,” he added.
To cater the growing shortfall in supplying potable water to an ever-expanding population, the city administrators are optimistic that one long-term solution to Islamabad’s water problem may materialise soon as the PC-1 of the Ghazi Barotha Water Supply Scheme, which will cost Rs77 billion, is ready to be sent to the Planning Commission.
For that purpose, Mott MacDonald Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd was tasked to prepare the PC-1 of the multi-billion project.
The Ghazi Barotha project had first been announced by the CDA in 2006. At that time, it was estimated that the project would cost around Rs37 billion and would see 200 million gallons (MG) of water being pumped into Islamabad and Rawalpindi from the Ghazi Barotha Dam on the Indus River every day.
The project, though, has been delayed for over a decade because provinces were not ready to hand over their share of water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
However, during a meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) in 2016, all provinces agreed on the need for the dam after which the federal government gave the CDA the green light to start work on the project. Under the agreed formula, the CDA can draw 74 cusecs of water each from Sindh and Punjab, 27 cusecs from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 24 cusecs from Balochistan’s share.
The project aims to supply 655 MGs of water per day by 2050 in three phases. In the first phase, 200mgd of water will be supplied to the twin cities.
