ISLAMABAD:
To cope with increasing water shortage in the city, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has planned a technical study and execution of water supply from the Ghazi-Barotha hydropower project.
An agreement between CDA and a Chinese state-owned company was signed in Beijing on Thursday for this purpose.
The project aims to get around 200 million gallons of water from the Ghazi-Barotha on a daily basis.
Islamabad is currently dependent on two water reservoirs — Simly and Khanpur — for its water supply. Both reservoirs produce a total of 65 million gallons per day (MGD), while the demand stands at around 150 MGD.
According to CDA officials, the project will help bridge this gap and overcome the shortage.
The MoU was signed between CDA Chairman Engineer Farkhand Iqbal and representatives of China Machinery Engineering Corporation in Beijing.
As per the MoU, the company would depute its technical team to visit Islamabad to help carry out further studies and help execution of the project.
The Ghazi-Barotha project, approved in 2005, was to be completed in 2009.
However, owing to reservation of provinces over sharing Indus River’s water, it faced inordinate delay.
Originally costing Rs22 billion, the project will now complete at a cost of Rs50 billion.
The chairman said all the formalities for the project are likely to be completed by September.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 27th, 2012.
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