Water shortage hits Chaklala Cantonment localities hard

Rawalpindi

In the scorching heat of summer and month of Ramazan, the people are suffering badly due to problem of water shortage in Cantonment areas and the concerned civic body Chaklala Cantonment Board is finding it hard to ensure provision of water supply to them in smooth way.

As the water problem has developed crisis like situation in cantonment localities, the concerned officials of water department of CCB is failing to provide water to its consumers even through water bowsers.

According to credible sources, the CCB has only three water tankers with it which is insufficient for 11 wards. Briefing the sources told that out of 6 water bowsers only 3 are in working condition. Because of this shortage of water bowsers vehicles, the civic body manages to meet only 37 complaints in a day out of more than 300 complaints being received every day from the consumers of 11 wards. The situation of water is worsening with passage of every day in cantonment limits.

On the other hand , the officials of CCB while agreeing the crisis like situation of water believe that it will improve after heavy rains whenever occurs. According to officials of CCB, the level of water in Khanpur Dam has considerably fallen , however, the sources say that water crisis has ocured in Cantonment areas because of suspension of water share of Khanpur to CCB and RCB by CDA at the pretext of non payment of share of funds by the civic bodies for completion of third phase of Khanpur Dam project. This phase was to be completed in June , 2016, which was delayed for another six months i.e. December, 2016. Again it remained incomplete only because the civic bodies failed to clear the share of funds to CDA. On this the CDA had already some six months back informed the RCB and CCB for suspending their share of water supply from Khanpur Dam in summer if payment of 3rd phase of Khanpur Dam project is not cleared.

The Chief Cantonment Engineer of CCB, Walayat Khan agreed that water problem persistent in cantonment areas of CCB and the civic body is finding hard to meet the demand of water supply to its consumers in this hour of crisis. Anyhow, he said the CCB had demanded allocation of grant from the government which is providing it for payment of funds related to 3rd phase of Khanpur Dam 3rd phase. Even in the annual budget for the fiscal year 2017-18, the government has made handsome allocation of funds for water improvements to CCB. Work on third phase of Khanpur has already been initiated and this project is likely to be completed in next 18 months i.e. by the end of December 2018.

According to the chief engineer, the level of ground water has also fallen considerably only because of shortfall of rains and dry weather over the years particularly during monsoon seasons. Due to depletion of water at ground level tube wells fail to provide water supply in some localities. Walayat Khan also did not disagree to the claims of sources that at present CCB has only 3 water bowsers to meet the needs of consumers of 11 wards. Efforts are being made to purchase more water bowsers for supplying water to the consumers through this source in a better way.

Meanwhile, vice president of CCB, Raja Mohd Irfan while reacting to the present crisis like situation of water in cantonment localities exhorted the need of construction of small dams by the governments without any further wastage of time. If priority is not given to construct small dams then the situation would go out of hand in the next few years, he said. He agreed that water problem has become more critical than the issue of power load shedding in the country. It needs to be resolved on priority basis, Raja Irfan stressed.