Twin cities struggle to find water

Water tankers charge exorbitant prices from locals to supply water

RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: With water supplies dwindling, officials in city administration and cantonment, have started blaming the heavens for the city’s aqua woes.

Termed as suffering from a mild drought in an advisory last week by the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Water And Sanitation Agency (Wasa) officials and cantonment board officials have only a couple of responses for the thousands of complaints about water they receive every day: the water levels in the Rawal and Khanpur Dams have reached worryingly low levels.

Moreover, with underground water levels falling, the tube wells too have stopped pumping out water, exacerbating the woes of locals.

As a final resort, locals are forced to pay hundreds to purchase tankers to replenish their parched tanks.

The public has started questioning the efficacy of several water conservation and supply schemes in the city in wake of the recent shortage. This includes an overhead tank built in the Railway Housing Scheme-VII at a cost of Rs70 million.

Further, residents of the housing scheme were charged thousands of rupees for effecting repairs on a damaged tube well. Despite that, the administration has failed to supply water to the residents, leading to protests.

Fed up with the complaints, a senior official of the housing society has switched his cell phone off.

Meanwhile, residents of Adiala Road, Jahrahi Stop and adjacent areas have been facing acute shortage of water for several days now. It has forced residents onto the streets and are now threatening to protest against Wasa.

"We have to fetch water from far-flung areas to meet our daily needs,” said resident Tariq Khan. He added that they could not afford to get a water tanker to supply them with water since it costs them around Rs18,000 to get water twice a week.

Waheed Khan, a resident of Ali Town, alleged that the tanker mafia was looting them and making money by selling water at high prices.

Aziz Malik said that they have lodged multiple complaints but no action has been taken thus far.

Islamabad needs new tube wells

Keeping in view the acute water shortage affecting Islamabad, a top official from the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) water and sewerage department on Sunday claimed that setting up 12 tube-wells in the wooded areas of the city could resolve their water woes.

The official claimed that the proposed project was to be executed in the national park area where sufficient underground water reservoirs were available. The authority, he said, had prepared the project concept-I (PC-I) in 2016, with a plan to cater to the water needs of sectors I-8, I-9, I-10, and I-11 among adjoining areas. As a proof of concept, he said that a tube well had been recently set up in the national park area which was fulfilling the needs of residents in Shahzad Town.

However, he said that the project could not materialise owing to lack of funds.

Referring to the low levels in its two primary water sources — the Simly and Khanpur dams — the official claimed that the capital was left with around a month's water supply.

He said that the water levels in the two dams were falling at a rate of two inches every day and unless the monsoon rains come soon enough, the situation could turn dire.

Falling water tables

Highlighting the dearth of subsoil water reservoirs in the region, he said the civic body had tried to find clean drinking water in different parts of the capital.

They drilled in Sector D-12, Margalla Town and Sector I-8.

Despite having drilled to a 1,000 feet, the official said that they did not find any water.

Stealing water

Water theft is another concern, the CDA official said.

“Rawal Town has only 15 legal connections while the remaining are illegal,” the official said, adding, “If you visit tube-wells number 31 and 32, you will see three to four illegal connections on each." He explained that the authority has been cracking down on illegal connections but water thieves keep reconnect their taps illegally.

Majeed Baloch, a resident of Sector I-10, complained that their area was not being supplied with water for the past two days, creating problems for residents who have to fetch drinking water from other localities.

Sector I-9 resident Ishaq complained that in just a matter of few years, they have started dreaming of uninterrupted water supply, or at least a rationed supply per schedule.

Dr Muhammad Ashraf, who has spent 22-years working on water resource development and management, emphasised that citizens must play a role in overcoming water shortage.

Underlining an example of wasted water, he pointed out that people do not bother to repair leaking flush tanks, taps and faulty lines, causing huge loss of water.

For Dr Ashraf, wasting water was a major cause of the water crisis in the country. Unless every citizen rationalises their use of water, the country may face severe water crisis in the coming days.

The issue had been raised in the last meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD). In response to questions from the committee’s members, CDA's Chairman Usman Bajwa had explained of the water supplied, 30 per cent goes to waste.

Tanker mafia

If anyone is benefitting from the water shortage in private housing societies located on the outskirts of the federal capital, it is the private tanker owners who are reaping a windfall as they are charged an exorbitant amount to deliver water to homes, especially during the holy month of Ramazan.

Muhammad Ali, a resident, said that due to acute shortage of the water during in Ramazan private water tanker owners were charging prices at will. When contacted the management of the housing societies said that due to the sweltering summer temperatures, demand for water had increased in different sectors and motors could not sustain pressure.

With additional input from App

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2018.