housands of residents of Farash Town and James Town in the twin cities are pleased because they now have access to clean drinking water. Not just that, they have also learnt useful skills like how to reuse water and recharge the water table by employing rain harvesting techniques.

This happened through a megaproject focused on water security. The project was a collaborative programme started by the World Wildlife Fund-Pakistan and Australia-Pakistan Water Security Initiative, an Australian Aid-funded project that aims to strengthen cooperation between Australia and Pakistan on urban water resources management.

The megaproject consisted of a series of smaller projects, all of which are scheduled to be operational by the end of December. It is expected that these will be run with community help. The goal was to tailor, adopt and demonstrate the Water Sensitive Cities approach in Pakistan.

Islamabad and Rawalpindi are among the cities expected to face water scarcity over the coming years.

The pilot project focused on two neighbourhoods of the twin cities. The first was James Town, Rawalpindi. It has over 450 Christian households and an acute water shortage. The second was Farash Town, another neighbourhood facing water scarcity in Islamabad. Farash Town has a population of over 20,000.

“Our area had a severe water shortage. The water table had also gone down. With the help of these projects we were able to recharge the aquifer and get water from filtration plants installed at various places in the town,” Yasmin Bibi, a resident of Farash Town tells The News on Sunday.

The WWF installed seven water filtration plants at five points in the locality and two in the bigger schools of the area. As many as 24,500 people now have access to clean drinking water. The filteration plants are maintained by the community itself.

“This is a blessing for us. Earlier, many families used to go to Chak Shahzad government filtration plant to get water. We had to hire a rickshaw to fetch water from there. Now, we have clean drinking water at our doorstep,” says Imran Ali, another resident.

“Our area had a severe water shortage. The water table had also gone down. With the help of these projects we were able to recharge the aquifer and get filtered water from plants installed at various places in the town.”

“Before this, people were so sick of water scarcity that the ones that could afford to were selling their properties and moving to other parts of the city. But now, with this project, our lives and priorities have changed. It is such a relief that we don’t have to get out of our way to get something as basic as water,” he says.

Under the project, started in April 2021, the WWF installed 275 rain water harvesting system (RWHS), six water recharge interventions, two green spaces, two large and one small filtration plants, 15 solid waste skips, two rain gardens and a sewerage system for 450 houses in James Town.

While in Farash Town, the WWF made 375 rainwater harvesting system interventions, four ablution water reuse systems, 31 recharge interventions, three green spaces, three communal RWHS, five large and two small filtration plans, four solid waste skips and two rain gardens.

“Such projects are very important. These are a serious demonstration of models creating awareness about water security,” Farah Nadeem, the project lead notes. “We have also included water security issues in the curriculum of local schools under this initiative,” she says.

“Through this project, WWF-Pakistan helped improve access to safe water and sanitation services for two disadvantaged communities, ensured community resilience to climate change and other water-related shocks; and built capacity of key stakeholders about water use and conservation,” says Nadeem.

Pakistan is one of the most water-stressed countries of the world with average per capita water availability of 964 m³ per annum. Scientific studies suggest that Pakistan is undergoing depletion of ground-water resources, thus adding to climate change-induced vulnerabilities of millions of people who are already affected by the lack of water, food, health services and energy security.

The author is a staff reporter. He can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com