RAWALPINDI: Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) on Saturday has decided to abolish tube well system to acquire water due to a decrease in underground water level to an alarming proportion.
According to media reports, approval has been granted to meet the citizens’ water requirements from dams and rivers instead of tube wells. The digging of new tube wells will be stopped in Rawalpindi city from March 2019 for an unspecified period.
In order to meet the immediate needs of citizens, water will be obtained from Murree bulk water project. Water will also be supplied from Chahan Dam and Dodhocha Dam. The capacity of Rawal Dam and Khanpur Dam is also being increased.
This way it will save Rs25 million that are accrued to WASA against electricity bills every month.
WASA owns 600 tube wells at present and electricity bill of every tube well runs into Rs0.7 million per month. Therefore, WASA has gone defaulter of Rs140 million on payment of electricity bills.
Sources said that surplus water of river Neelum/Jhelum will be made available to WASA from Murree bulk water project. This project is near to completion and water supply can be started from this project within 3 months.