Islamabad: Showing concerns over the acute water shortage issue in the federal capital, Sheikh Amir Waheed, president, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has called upon the relevant authorities to take urgent measures to resolve this chronic issue as the residents of many sectors in Islamabad including the business community were facing great problems due to shortage of water. He said the water shortage issue in the federal capital has been worsening since long as the water level in Simly and Khanpur dams was decreasing day by day. He said the water shortage was also taking a toll on the growth of business and industrial activities in Islamabad and needed urgent attention of the authorities to resolve it. He said that with the significant rise in the population of Islamabad, the requirement of water has also increased manifold, but the supply remained around 54 to 55 Million Gallons Per Day (MDG) making supply of water a serious issue of the federal capital. Sheikh Amir Waheed said that Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) was planning for water supply project from Ghazii Brotha dam which required laying of around 50 kilometers long pipeline, but it would take years as the MCI has to acquire land from Punjab and KP to materialise this project. He stressed that MCI should work out some short term solutions to cope with rising water crisis issue in Islamabad and to provide some relief to the residents. Muhammad Naveed, senior vice president and Nisar Mirza, vice president, ICCI said that tube wells in many sectors of Islamabad were out of order while the civic bodies had limited water tankers to supply water to the citizens.
