PTI protests against water scarcity

City faces summer shortfall of up to 49m gallons per day

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) staged a protest outside the capital’s civic agency against the acute water shortage in the city, especially for people living in the I-Series sectors, have been facing.

Islamabad MNA Asad Umar led the Friday protest, which saw participation from PTI activists and city residents.

Addressing the protesters, Umar accused the Capital Development Authority (CDA) of discriminating among citizens, as there is no water shortage in posh sectors, while sectors where middle-income families live have no water in the summer.

“It’s very unfortunate that residents have been forced to protest on streets to get the very basic necessity of life,” Umar said, adding that he brought up the issue in Parliament, but the government did not pay attention, leaving him with no option but to protest on the streets.

He also deplored the state of affairs at the CDA water supply directorate, saying that a number of water tankers were out-of-order and parked in the civic agency’s parking lots, while no efforts had been made to install generators at tube wells to ensure water availability during load shedding hours.

City’s water needs

At present, the actual demand for Islamabad’s, estimated 2.2 million, residents is 211.22 million gallons per day (MGD).

In urban areas, managed by CDA, the current demand is 125 MGD, according to a recent study conducted by consultancy firm MM Pakistan. CDA Engineering Member Shahid Sohail said that the authority was supplying 74 MGD to these areas, leaving a shortfall of 49 MGD, or 39 per cent of demand.

Demand in rural areas is 86.2 MGD. Almost 60 schemes are being operated by the ICT’s Local Government and Rural Development (LG&RD) through committees established at the union council-level to meet this demand.

The study estimates that by 2020, the city’s water needs will rise to 246.79 MGD.

It says distribution losses in the next five years will increase from the current 27.55 MGD to 32.19 MGD, thus putting actual demand at almost 279 MGD. This figure includes 155.15 MGD of domestic demand and 59.45 MGD of non-domestic demand.

Supply issues are aggravated in the peak summer months as the CDA opts for water rationing.

The study by MM Pakistan further suggests that at present, 27.6 MGD, is being wasted due to antiquated water supply infrastructure.

In urban areas, the CDA supplies water from Khanpur Dam, Simly Dam, and tubewells.

“Supply from Khanpur and Simly dams is sufficient and currently there is no water shortage in areas where water comes from the dams,” Sohail said.

He explained that shortage of water is reported in the I-Series of sectors because they are almost exclusively fed by tube wells, mostly in the national park areas.

Sohail said excessive load shedding and the receding underground water table have affected supply in I-Series sectors. “To overcome load shedding issues, a decision was taken to install generators at tube wells,” Shahid said.

As a stopgap arrangement, Shahid said water would be supplied to affected areas through tankers. He further informed that 18 “off-road” water tankers would be made operational within a week after necessary repair and maintenance. He said finance wing had also released the funds required for repair and maintenance.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2016.