Biggest rainwater storage tank to be built in Tajpura

LAHORE : Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) is going to start its biggest underground rainwater storage tank in Tajpura area with an estimated cost of Rs903.725 million.

Wasa Managing Director Ghafran Ahmed while talking with The News said Tajpura was one of the sore points in agency’s jurisdiction. He said water bodies (river etc) were generally away from the ponding area due to which in every monsoon the area witnessed submerging and urban flooding. “Water accumulates on roads due to local depressions at roads, non-restoration of road cuts, potholes, non-connectivity and availability of gully gratings system, raised green belts, inadequate existing system and combined system for sewage and storm water drainage,” he said.

Talking about solutions other than rainwater storage tank, he said sewage pumping stations can be constructed and piped/open sewage carriers can be constructed but huge investment and time required for these projects while construction of road side drains was not feasible because no water body existed near this sore point. Wasa MD maintained that urban flooding at Tajpura was a big problem because low level grounds/green belts, no storage of rain water in underground tanks/tunnels despite the fact rainwater harvesting by-laws were present but there was no implementation on them. Talking about the Tajpura water storage facility, Wasa MD revealed that the project comprised of two storage tanks situated at Tajpura B-Block. He said the initial project cost was above one billion but Wasa worked on it and after rationalisation the cost came down to Rs903.725 million and Wasa saved Rs256.745 of the national exchequer. He told that the project will be completed in 19 months till June 2026.

Giving technical details, he said each tank has the capacity of 1.6 million gallon (MG) so its total capacity was 3.2 MG, which made this underground rainwater facility as the biggest among the three constructed underground water tanks at Lawrence Road (1.4 MG), Sheranwala Gate (1.5 MG) and Kashmir Road (1.5 MG). Wasa MD announced that seven more underground rainwater tanks will be constructed at Rasool Park (Shama Road) (1.5MG), Cooper Road (1.5MG), Waris Road (1.5MG), Karim Park Ravi Road (1.8MG), Fruit and Vegetable Market (1.5MG), Railway Station Park (1.8MG) and Tikka Chowk (1.5 MG) while Wasa was also constructing a rainwater storage tank at Gaddafi Stadium, which was about to complete soon. Mudassar Javed, a senior officer of Wasa said the project objectives were to reuse rainwater for horticulture purposes thereby distressing the aquifer, to use the stored water for recharging the underground water table, to improve the environmental conditions of the project area, to reduce the ponding and surface runoff, to facilitate public movement and avoid unsolicited traffic hazards during rainfall and to reduce damages to roads and public/private properties.