islamabad

The water shortage in Islamabad has become even worse for the residents, as the dreary scorching heat of July hits the city hard.

As the supply goes down, the number of water complaints has risen to alarming figures ranging from 70-100 per day in a single sector of the city as compared to 50-60 per day during winter.

The residents of the sectors situated on the tail of the water supply lines are the most distressed of all the affectees of this shortage.

A resident of G-11 sector, Waqas Ahmed Khan while talking to The Nation said that water supply is quite poor these days due to the apathy and inefficiency of the CDA officials.

He further said that CDA is least bothered about the complaints lodged by the residents regarding water shortage and tanker service seems incapable of solving the issue because usually a complainant has had to wait for 4 to 5 days to avail the service.

“The only solution that is available with the residents is to call private water tankers which would cost around Rs1100 to Rs1400 per water tanker. We have been left at the mercy of water tanker mafia,” he lamented.

The twin cities draw water from Simly and Rawal Dam, the Korang, Shahdara, Saidpur and Noorpur waterworks plus over 400 tube-wells.

Even so, there is a huge difference between the supply and demand i.e. a shortfall of approximately 21 million gallons per day. So of late, there has been a great increase in the boring of tube wells when the citizens see no improvement in the city water supply, they seek their own remedies. Additionally, due to the rapid expansion of the city especially recently into the D-12 and E-11 sectors, and the swift population growth, the limited underground water resource is fast diminishing.

The issue was first reported in April and May, as summer began, and the authorities were all set to take necessary measures to amend the situation. Several new CDA inquiry offices were established to cater singularly to water shortage complaints.

There now exists an online Complaint Management System (as compared to previously being just one helpline number) in addition to four landline and cell phone numbers dedicated to logging complaints. Furthermore, there were attempts to fix up faulty tube wells by the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) in April this year, and yet the crisis is far from being averted.

–The writer is a student at NUST