Boating activities banned in Khanpur Dam

ISLAMABAD The Ministry of Environment has recently taken action against boating activities at the Khanpur Dam aimed at preserving water quality despite its failure to ban boats plying at the Rawal Lake in the Federal Capital. Khanpur Dam with its beautiful blue water lake is situated 8 miles north of Taxila on the Haripur Road. It is a multipurpose project, which supplies drinking water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi and irrigation water to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (110 cusecs) and Punjab (87 cusecs). Beside provision of drinking water, it is an ideal recreational spot for boating, angling and watching migratory birds during winter. It has been reliably learnt from the official sources within the concerned department that the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-Epa), an implementation agency of the Ministry of Environment has taken action against plying of boats in the Khanpur Dam considering it one of the major source of water pollution due to discharge of oil and grease from the boat engines. According to the concerned officials the Khanpur Dam water is a major source of drinking water for population of twin cities, and for the purpose of protecting quality of water the Pak-EPA has taken said action against the activity. It was also learnt that case against boat owners has also been registered in the environmental tribunal of the Ministry of Environment. It is to be mentioned here the Rawal lake water contamination always remained an issue of prime importance and the environment officials had banned boating two times in past at the area in order to preserve quality of lake water These actions against the boat owners of lake were taken on the ground to preserve quality of water that is a major source of drinking water for the inhabitants of Rawalpindi. Yet the concerned quarter had failed to implement the said decisions and this ban became ineffective with the passage of time. It is observed that the banning of motor-boats in past remained the first apparent sign of conflict between offering a diverse range of recreational activities and source of income for boat owners on the one hand and preserving water quality or protecting the natural environment on the other.