Power outages create water shortage in Rawalpindi

Rawalpindi : The residents of the city are facing acute water shortages due to interrupted supply from Rawal Dam and Khanpur Dam. Long hours of unscheduled loadshedding have been blamed for the water crisis because Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) cuts the electricity after every hour and that too on a regular basis, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) Managing Director said here on Tuesday.

According to Wasa, the water supply from Khanpur Dam and Rawal Dam has been strongly affected which was insufficient to meet the demand. "The city needs about 60 million gallons of water per day. However, it is supplied with only 30 million gallons daily.”

Wasa Managing Director Raja Shaukat Mehmood said that all tube wells remained shut due to prolonged unscheduled loadshedding. It was impossible to get water supply from Rawal Lake Filtration Plant in this situation, he said. He said we are not getting water supply from Khanpur Dam as per demand. We have failed to store water in tanks due to prolonged loadshedding, he said. He said we are only supplying 50 per cent of water from Rawal Dam to city and cantonment board areas.

He also said that several motors have been burnt due to low voltage and tripping. He has appealed to provide uninterrupted electricity to provide water to locals.

Some key post officials from Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) on condition of anonymity told ‘The News’ that 27 power houses in the country were non-functional for over three years therefore people were facing an electricity crisis. Government officers of concerned departments wrote several letters to the former government to resolve this issue on an emergency basis but in vain, the officers claimed. Presently, the country is facing a 7,468 MW electricity shortfall. If the government does not purchase fuel and does not start repairing these non-functional power plants, people would face over 15 hours loadshedding on regular basis, the officials warned.

While talking to ‘The News’ people belonging to different walks of life protested against former prime minister Imran Khan who did nothing except tell lies in his speeches. “We are facing 8 to 10 hours of power blackouts day and night in Ramazan. This Ramazan we are without light and without water in severely harsh weather, all due to bad governance of former government, people strongly denounced.