IMC disconnects 25 illegal water connections

Official says notices served to car washes to conserve water by recycling

ISLAMABAD: With the water crisis in the federal capital easing following a spell of rains, the local government has decided to take some additional steps to improve water supply buy cutting 25 illegal connections from the main water supply pipeline over the past two months.

The Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) Water Supply director has said that the main reason for a shortage of water in the city was leakage and water theft.



This, he said, caused 50 per cent of the city’s water to be wasted per day.

To mitigate water shortage, the official said that the corporation was taking short and long-term steps to ensure sufficient supply of water to the capital. He added that the corporation has requested residents to take measures which stop wastage of water.

In this regard, he said that they had served notices to car wash centres to install machines which help recycle water. To a question, he said that Ghazi Barotha Dam Project has been included in vision 2050 for the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.



The director further said that the project was spread over three phases. In the first phase, the twin cities will be provided with 200 million gallons of water per day by laying a 60-kilometre-long, 80 inch-wide pipeline from the Tarbela dam at Ghazi Barotha to a water treatment plant at Sangjani in Islamabad.

In the second phase, an additional 200 million gallons of water will be received on a daily basis while in the third phase, 255 million gallons of water will be received, he added.    Once complete, the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi will be supplied with a total of 650 million gallons of water a day, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2019.