Ghazi Barotha Water Project likely to be initiated by year end

Islamabad: The efforts are underway to initiate multi-billion Ghazi Barotha Water project this year to provide adequate clean drinking water to the residents of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad for next 35 years, the sources said.

The sources said the local government of the capital city would approach the Prime Minister House for provision of the funds required to initiate Ghazi Barotha Water Project at the end of this year.

Deputy Mayor Syed Zeeshan Ali Naqvi said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took personal interest due to which all the provinces during a meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) agreed last year on the Ghazi Barotha Water Project.

Under the agreed-on formula, the Capital Development Authority (CDA is allowed to take 74 cusecs of water each from Sindh and Punjab, 27 cusecs from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 24 cusecs from Balochistan.

This project was planned to conduct 655 MGD of water per day by 2050 in three phases. In the first phase, 200 MGD of water will be supplied to the twin cities.

He said the federal government has given the green light to initiate the project for bringing in water from the River Indus so they are going to translate this project into reality in the coming months.