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Friday March 29, 2024

Water supply in Islamabad to remain hot issue for political parties

By Muhammad Anis
April 24, 2017

Next election campaign

Islamabad: As the political parties are set to exploit water issue in Islamabad in their campaign leading to the next general elections, the Municipal Corporation of Islamabad (MCI) has claimed to meet the shortage in the next little over two years after completing water supply project from Indus River.

The next general elections if everything goes smoothly would be held, next year and the water crisis in Islamabad is becoming a hot issue for the election campaigns.The local leadership of two main opposition parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have already started grilling the government and civic bodies for their failure to ensure sufficient supply of water to residents of the federal capital.

Feeling that water shortage is the burning issue in Islamabad, the political parties have been staging demonstrations besides displaying banners across the federal capital.The Islamabad Mayor, Sheikh Anser Aziz, and his government have also been facing severe criticism from the opposition members and chairmen of his own party in the last three sessions of the MCI.

With the advent of early summer season, excluding the last couple of days, the requirement of water had increased but the supply remained at 54 Million Gallons per Day (MGD) which is less than half of total capacity of water reservoirs like Simly Dam, Khanpur Dam, Shah Alla Ditta and tube-wells. With available resources, the current situation of water supply is expected to continue during the next one month.

Presently, 63 out of 187 tube-wells are out of order while only 18 water tankers are in working condition to address public complains.A senior official of the MCI while admitting water rationing in Islamabad has viewed that there was no immediate solution to completely overcome the water shortage within the available resources.

Chief Metropolitan Officer (CMO) Asad Mehbood Kiani who also holds charges of Member Engineering and Member Planning told The News that between 10 MGD to 15 MGD water would be added to the supply before start of the Holy month of Ramazan with repair of 30 tube-wells. “We are planning to open tender for repair on Tuesday for repair of 30 tube wells and hopefully, the maintenance work will be complete in one month time,” he said.

According to him, the main reason for water shortage is decreasing level of water at Simly Dam to 2278 feet above sea level against 2315 feet during the same period, last year. He said the water level at Simly Dam is decreasing by three to four inches on daily basis.

With only 18 water tankers available with MCI, the residents have been left at mercy of the private tankers mafia which is charging high from the consumers. The consumers have to stand in long queues to register their complaints at complaint offices but majority of them do receive bowzers. “We are trying to repair the dysfunctional tankers to provide relief to the masses,” MCI top official said.

He said that most likely the feasibility and PC-2 of the water supply project from Indus River (Ghazi Brotha) would be ready to be sent to the Planning Commission. The project for laying around 50 kilometers long pipeline, would also require acquisition of land in Punjab and KP province. “Hopefully, it will take two years to accomplish the task,” he said.

The twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad would receive 100 MGD each of water once the plan is materialized.Mian Muhammad Ramzan, naib ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) while negating claims of the MCI official, said the concerned authorities should have been ready to meet water shortage in the federal capital saying the present situation of acute water scarcity speaks volume Government’s inability to address public issues.He questioned as to why the MCI did not repaired tube-wells and water tankers before start of the summer season. “We do not believe in lame accuses of the government,” he said.