So what, if you are not receiving water supply at your residence, nothing to worry about, go to Zero Point Interchange and you would find the same in adequacy gushing from a broken pipeline.
One can see the people of the area around the pipeline to take a bath and beat the heat, but unfortunately, the water rising from the pipeline some five to six feet above, is invisible to the CDA high-ups. Even the problem remained out of their vision when almost all of the CDA officers gathered at Zero Point Interchange to attend the groundbreaking of widening of Kashmir Highway, just several meters from the damaged pipeline.
For the last few months, the federal capital had been in grip of severe water shortage and the CDA has been under an immense pressure to address the complaints the number of which has risen to around 1,500 a day. Now under the revised bylaws, the CDA is imposing fine on those not using water judiciously, but how an organisation can fine any person when it violates its own bylaws.
As the whole city’s water supply system is underground, it is an uphill task for the relevant formation of the CDA to detect where water leaks from because the whole water supply system is in shambles. As per master plan of Islamabad, the city’s water system should be upgraded after each decade in accordance with the needs of the growing population, but the city fathers failed to do so. They have neither upgraded the supply system, nor could they build more water reservoirs as the capacity of both Simly and Khanpur dams is on the decrease as their expiry date reaches closer.
According to official statistics, out of 65 MGD supplied from both the water reservoirs, around 30 MGD goes waste that equals water quantity of Simly Dam owing to the broken water pipelines. Both the reservoirs have the capacity to supply 65 MGD, making a shortfall of around 85 MGD.
A senior CDA official said the authority has forwarded a PC-I of Rs 11 billion of the project to the Planning Commission to arrange funding for replacement and rehabilitation of outdated water supply network. Various local and international firms are interested in executing the project, but owing to funds scarcity, the CDA cannot afford this mega project and is trying to strike a deal with any foreign agency to seek funding. “If it is signed, it would help save around 50 percent of water going waste from rusty and broken pipelines,” he claimed.
Under the much-delayed plan, old and rusty pipelines would be replaced with the help of the trenchless technology which is quite popular in many developed countries.
