Capital’s water woes: Senate panel suggests outsourcing issue to Chinese

Meeting of Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat summoned next week

ISLAMABAD: To resolve the acute shortage of water in the capital, lawmakers have suggested that control of the city should be handed over to the Chinese to resolve the issue.

“Residents are charged development and other charges, but what is the use [of this money] if they cannot be provided water which is a basic necessity of life,” said Senator Azam Khan Swati of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Tuesday.

Against the demand of 110 million gallons of water per day (MGD), the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) has been providing only 56MGD. This gap is feared to further increase at the peak of summer in June, said IMC official Nasir Butt.

The IMC official further stated that rainwater and the reservoir at Simly Dam were the main sources of potable water for the residents of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) including model villages. Around 134 tube wells make up the third largest source of water for the capital, supplying 38 MGD of water.

“Current shortage is mainly due to depletion of the surface as well as groundwater sources owing to lesser rainfall,” Butt explained.

The senators reprimanded the IMC officials for not being updated about the developments taking place inside the city regarding water and other civic issues.

Butt tried to explain that a significant amount of water is wasted before it reaches the respective areas owing to leakage at the joints of old or broken pipes.

Moreover, he explained that of the 33 water tankers with the civic body, 21 were operational while seven were out of commission while five were being repaired. Butt added that these tankers respond to as many as 700 complaints about water every day.

Unsatisfied, Senator Yousaf Badini suggested handing over administrative affairs of the city to the Chinese.

“If these days everything is being given to Chinese, then why not hand over the serious problem to them for resolution,” Badini suggested.

At this, Senator Kamil Ali Agha and Senator Kalsoom Perveen said in unison, “there should be no harm [in doing this].”

Thumping the desk, Agha asked in grunting voice that people need water and the civic authority was unaware of the seriousness of the issue or the exact figures.

“IMC is busy making money and bargaining about plots and other things, how can they take out time for such a petty issue,” he complained.

The committee’s chairman Senator Talha Mahmood said that since members of the IMC were also not fully aware of the issue, another meeting, especially on the water crisis in the capital, would be held on May 23.

“Will they bring water next time,” Senator Praveen asked, adding that it was useless to hold meetings when concrete measures were a dream.

The committee also discussed the problem of increasing use of drugs at different education institutes in the city and intransigence of the authorities concerned to take the issue seriously.

Senior Superintendent of Islamabad Police Sajid Kiani told the committee that during last four weeks, 23 suspects involved in supplying drugs to two government colleges and four universities and a few private schools had been apprehended.

He also ruled out reports of rampant use or sale of drugs inside or outside educational institutes.

“I am saying this with authority and authenticity that any student or anyone inside the institution has been involved in drug peddling,” he said adding that students had lives outside their institutions as well.

Chairperson of the committee said the elite institutions needed to be vigilantly monitored to stop the use of drugs as it was a costly business and parents could control the menace by stopping the pocket money of the students.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2017.