Islamabad-A top official from Capital Development Authority’s Water and Sewerage Department Sunday claimed that only twelve tube-wells were an ultimate solution to the worsening water shortage in the federal capital.
He said the proposed project, to be executed in potential National Park area where sufficient underground water reservoirs were available, was put on the back burner due to dearth of financial resources.
He said the capital was left with only one month’s water supply as both Simly and Khanpur dams were losing two inches daily, a situation every year being faced before monsoon season.
He said the project’s PC-1 prepared by the authority in 2016 could not be materialized for want of money to be provided by the Ministry of Finance.
The civic authority, he claimed after execution of this project could cater the water need of I-8, I-9, I-10, I-11 sectors besides some other areas.
He also shared a successful experience of a recently constructed tube well in the National Park area which was fulfilling the need of Shahzad Town’s dwellers. Highlighting the dearth of sub-soil water reservoirs he said the civic body had tried to find out clean drinking water at different places of D-12, Margalla Town and I-8 but failed to have water despite drilling down to 1000 feet.
Expressing his dismay over the water theft he informed “The Rawal Town has only 15 legal connections while remaining are illegal. If you visit tube well number 31 and 32, you will see 3 0r 4 illegal connection on each,” he added. “The action is taken by the authority but this mafia reconnects their tap illegally”
Majeed Baloch a resident of Sector I-10 complained that their area was not being supplied water for the last two days, creating problems for the residents who have to fetch drinking water form other localities.
A resident of I-9 sector Ishaq complaint that it was now capital’s dwellers dream to have uninterrupted or at least scheduled water supply. Dr Muhammad Ashraf having 22 -year experience in Water Resource Development and Management emphasizing citizens’ role in overcoming water shortage said excessive and irrational use of water was a major cause of water crisis in the country.He said every citizen has to ensure rational and judicious use as country may face severe water crisis in coming days.
Underlining an example of water wastage he said people don’t bother to repair leakage of a flush tank, taps and rotten lines causing huge water loss in drainage system.
It is worth mentioning that the water shortage issue had echoed in the last meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD).
In response to the questions, CDA’s Chairman Usman Bajwa had explained before the committee that over two million residents of the capital require 120 million gallons of water every day (mgd). However, they were only receiving 59mgd. Of this insufficient supply, Bajwa lamented, 30% goes to waste, exacerbating the shortage.
The Chairman also apprised the committee that the capital was getting its water from three sources, Simly, Khanpur dams and 197 tube-wells spread across the city. Almost 157 out of them were out of order or partially functional.