Traffic blocked: Cantt residents protest over lack of water supply

CCB has not paid RCB for water supply to its areas

RAWALPINDI: Residents of Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) localities on Wednesday carried out a protest demonstration on Dhamial Road at Kamalabad against the suspension of water supply.

The roadblock led to massive traffic jams as vehicular traffic was diverted to adjacent streets, causing further congestion in these areas. The road remained blocked for an hour-and-a-half, causing many problems for commuters and area residents.

The protest demonstration was attended by over a hundred people and only ended after CCB Vice President Raja Irfan Imtiaz held negotiations with them.

“Kamalabad, Jhawra, and Gulshan-e-Shafi have already been facing severe water shortages.  Now we have learnt that the administration of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) had decided to provide connection from the pipeline to other adjacent areas of RCB,” said Chaudhry Imran, who was part of the protest.

He noted that the RCB had installed an injector to provide water from their area pipeline to Quaid-e-Azam colony, Ahmedabad, and Dhoke Lakhan. The cantonment engineers informed that if the injector were operated, there would virtually be no water for Kamalabad and other areas.

Asif Mahmood, a PTI MPA from the area, also took part in the protest.

The MPA told The Express Tribune that water scarcity had been a simmering issue in cantonment areas. In this particular case, the RCB administration wanted to give water to other areas, making life difficult for residents of Kamalabad.

Mahmood said that the RCB executive officer had informed him that the water pipeline for Kamalabad, Jhawra, and Gulshan-e-Shafi was laid down by the RCB. The areas, however fall in the limits of CCB. The CCB has not been paying Rs1 million per month to RCB for water supplied to its areas, the MPA shared.

He said that the cantonment authorities had also informed him that if special grants were not provided by the Punjab or federal government for upgradation of pipelines supplying water from Khanpur, the water situation would exacerbate over the next four years.

The PTI MPA said that the PML-N government had done nothing to provide water to residents of cantonment areas.

The protesters dispersed after Haji Zafar Iqbal, an elected member of the RCB from PML-N, reached the spot and assured them that the injector would not be operated at the same time when water was supplied to the three localities.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2016.