Residents of the area have dumped garbage right next to a sign urging citizens to keep Leh clean. PHOTO: FILE
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has a significant role in worsening the flood and sewerage situation in the Nullah Leh that meanders through the middle of the city due to frequent release of untreated sewage in upstream areas, an official at the Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) said.
While speaking to The Express Tribune on Sunday, Wasa Managing Director Raja Shaukat Mehmood said that around 70 per cent of untreated sewage was thrown into Leh by the Islamabad civic agency.
“They do not take responsibility in terms of cost sharing or in tackling the sewage issue,” he said.
The official also claimed that the CDA’s sewage treatment plants in Sector I-9 were not operational.
Muhammad Umer Farooq, focal person for the Wasa, said that 70 per cent of the rainwater in Nullah Leh arrived from Bajnial, Golra, I-9 and Saidpur tributaries located in Islamabad.
“Once water reaches Katarian in Rawalpindi, it suddenly swells up during monsoon thereby flooding the nullah,” he said.
The Wasa official claimed that reluctance on behalf of the CDA in making any serious effort to treat flood and sewage water upstream was burdening the already limited resources of the water management authority.
“Rawalpindi contributes towards Islamabad, most significantly by sending workforce to the capital on a daily basis, but when it comes to contributing towards issues such as sewage and appropriate flood water management, the CDA continues to ignore [playing] its part,” said Farooq.
Officials at the CDA Water Management Wing declined to comment on the subject.
However, CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid rejected the Wasa allegations, saying that currently sewage treatment capacity in the capital was more than its net sewage output.
Data compiled by the Global Water Partnership (GWP)’s Associated Programme on Flood Management and World Metrological Organisation (WMO) suggest that present water supply capacity in Leh basin area was about 785 million litres per day.
Of this, service catchment area of the CDA shared 507.33 million litres per day. The data suggests that the service catchment area shared by the Wasa and the cantonment authority is 122.74 and 155.48 litres a day, respectively.
The research highlights that the main Rawalpindi city falls within the lower plain of the stream.
It points out that at present flood water from the four major upper tributaries of Leh is not being used in any of the urban irrigation projects. Rather, the flood water generated is released as waste, which is responsible for inundating the low-lying areas.
Treatment plant
As for the Wasa’s efforts in treating sewage, he said the authority was sanctioned to acquire 6,000-kanal in villages near Adiala in 2009 for building treatment plants. However, the land bought at that time remained out of use, since the project was shelved with change in government.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 31st, 2015.
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