Water supply from Khanpur Dam to remain suspended from February 1

Rawalpindi : The civic bodies Rawalpindi and Chaklala Cantonment Boards along with the Capital Development Authority would start de-silting work of Khanpur Dam from February 01 which would continue for 12 days.

As a result, both the civic bodies would not be able to supply water to the residents for at least 13 days in their respective wards. However, water supply would be made through tube wells without any interruption.

Official spokesman , Secretary, Qaisar Mahmood while confirming the report advised the citizens to use the water at a normal level and not to get tensed but to cooperate . The civic bodies carry out annual work of de-silting of Khanpur Dam. According to him, amount of Rs1.12 million is spent on this work.

In the meantime, The News learnt that despite heavy rains occurring in Rawalpindi, the level of water in Khanpur Dam has not increased sufficiently. The level of water in Khanpur Dam is still 1940 feet high against a total capacity of 1982 feet.

Qaisar Mahmood, who is also media manager while replying to a question told that work on third phase of Khanpur Dam is being carried out on fast note to complete this project by end of June this year. After its completion RCB would be able to get additional share of 10 million gallon water per day from Khanpur Dam. At present RCB is supplying 11 to 12 million gallon water per day to the consumers in the wards falling under its jurisdiction. To improve the situation of water supply, RCB has recently also completed work on repair of leakages of water pipelines in certain areas which resulted in supplying water from 11 mgd to 12 mgd per day. Even after completion of third phase of Khanpur Dam, there would be short of 9 mgd per day despite increase in water supply by 10 mgd per day through our share, he said.

To yet another question, Qaisar Mahmood informed that we are falling short of water supply demand by 19 mgd per day at present.