Wasa to build mini dam, reservoir in City

LAHORE: To provide clean drinking water to the citizens as well as to save the underground water aquifer, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has planned to construct a mini dam cum reservoir in the provincial capital.

As the groundwater supply of the city will not be able to support the drinking water needs of its rapidly growing population over the coming decade and for this alternative sources of drinking water should be explored and cultivated on emergent grounds.

The rapid urbanisation and the resultant exponential growth in the population of Lahore have created a brewing crisis of shortage of clean drinking water. This has forced people to drink semi-clean water resulting in increasing number of water-borne diseases.

“With the spring and summer season just round the corner, the outbreak of water-borne diseases like cholera, gastro and diarrhoea are going to hit the city like every year, only because people drink more water in warmer weather and due to the lack of clean water resources they are forced into this situation”, said Dr Salman Kazmi.

According to experts, adding more pumping stations to cater to this growing demand would only worsen the problem as it will only cause the already receding water table to fall further. According to a recent study conducted in this regard, the average water table level in the city is somewhere between 200 to 220 meters which has led to two major challenges.

The first of these two challenges is that it makes the water pumping operation far more expensive with every additional meter added to the drilling depth while the second problem is the further depletion of the aquifer resource for the city without any reasonable mechanism to enhance the recharging of the aquifer.

Water and Sanitation Authority (Wasa) is responsible to address all future challenges relating to supply of drinking water, said Wasa Managing Director Zahid Aziz while talking with The News here Thursday. “We are aware of gravity of the situation regarding ground water and have been working on devising a mechanism that would serve to meet most of these major challenges”, Wasa MD added.

“Wasa has almost done with the feasibility study regarding construction of a barrage at the River Ravi. The draft feasibility of this proposal has already been submitted while the feasibility is near completion,” he revealed and added that Punjab Irrigation Department is carrying out a consultancy through G3 Consultants using seepage of Ravi to meet drinking water needs of Lahore.

“The barrage would provide a temporary reservoir of treatable water for Wasa, while at the same time assisting a mechanism to replenish the depleting aquifer. It would inadvertently also restore natural ecology of the River Ravi”, he told.

According to the project plan, this reservoir would be used as the feeding source for the Surface Water Treatment Plant (SWTP). The proposed site for this treatment plant is virtually right next to the Ravi Syphon near Ghazi Kakka and would be spread over 150 acres. Certain French investors have already expressed interest in the project and a delegation in this regard has also visited the proposed site of the treatment plant, a senior Wasa official revealed.

This treatment plant will be fed through the syphon an escape channel regulating structure would control the water provision post treatment to filtration plants and/or irrigation system.

“The need for an alternative resource of clean drinking water for Lahore is not just crucial, but emergent. While majority of this rapidly populating city unplanned, the groundwater supply proving to be insufficient”, believes Expert on Groundwater and Hydrology Dr Muhammad Shafiq.

There is around three to four million acre feet water that skips to Pakistan from India into Ravi and is significantly less polluted to the extent that it can be stored and treated for drinking, he told. Dr Shafiq stressed that the need to build mechanism to replenish the Lahore aquifer is emergent because due to virtually all canals being lined and even agriculture land being laser levelled, there is no source for the aquifer to replenish.

Dr Shafiq also warned about the lax approach towards treatment of water in general and said that the increasing chemical impurities is leading to lesser agricultural yield and dangerous results in the agriculture products.

When asked, the Wasa MD told that there is work in progress in this domain and Wasa had identified six sites for its waste water treatment plants. The proposed locations are Shahdara, Ferozepur Road, Babu Sahbu, Mahmood Booti and Shadbagh.

While the construction of a barrage at the Ravi would be a project that would cost somewhere around $650 million, it could address multiple dimensions of the drinking water problems, he maintained and concluded that the project can serve as a source of recharging the aquifer, it can provide for a treatable resource for drinking water all the while providing a system to manage storm water at the same time.