Punjab okays water supply projects for Pindi

Water will be sourced from the Daducha mini-dam and the Chhann dam

RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has given the green light for a water supply project for the Rawalpindi district in the next fiscal year 2019-20, which will bring water from two dams to the parched city.

The plan involves the construction of the Daducha mini-dam on the outskirts of Rawalpindi near the village of Daducha. Separately, a new water supply line will be laid a water treatment plant will be installed at the Chhann dam.

On directions of the Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, the officials from the Punjab finance department have visited the site reserved for construction of the Daducha dam. The land acquisition process for the dam is expected to begin in July.

The dam is expected to cost Rs6 billion while the installation of water supply pipelines and treatment plants are expected to begin in the second phase of the project.

Work on Chahan Dam water supply scheme to start next fiscal year

Further, after installation of the new supply line and water treatment plant at the Chhann dam, the cantonment areas of the garrison city are expected to receive water to fulfil their requirements.

Moreover, funds worth Rs5 billion have been approved owing to efforts from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Wasiq Qayyum Abbasi.

The MPA, who was elected from PP-12 Rawalpindi-VII in the July 25, 2018, general elections, has been working on both projects and said that work on them is expected to commence in the first quarter of the new fiscal year.

Moreover, the government has decided to ban the installation of new tube-wells in the district until further orders because the wells have been depleting underground water levels of the city rapidly.

Separately, the Punjab government has released Rs24.998 million for the municipal corporations (MCs), district councils and municipal committees of Rawalpindi under the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) non-development fund.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) in neighbouring Islamabad has been reviewing proposals from various companies to build a water supply system from the Ghazi-Barotha Dam. One of the proposals discussed included building a 45 kilometre-long pipeline from the dam to the city.

Once complete, the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi could expect to receive around 200 million gallons per day (MGD) of water of which 100 MGD will be supplied to Rawalpindi while rest will be consumed in Islamabad.

The project had been conceived in 2006 when former military ruler General (retired) Pervez Musharraf was still at the helm. It was estimated to cost around Rs17 billion and work on the project was scheduled to commence in March 2009 and it was supposed to have been completed in five years by 2013.

But owing to issues over water division from the divisible pool for provinces and then price, the Ghazi-Barotha water supply scheme had been pending for the past 13 years.

The previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had started work on it with Mayor Aziz sending a project concept-I to the planning ministry for approval.

Even though the project’s cost had ballooned to Rs85 billion by the time the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took over, the government released Rs500 million towards the project.

The project is supposed to be jointly funded and completed by Punjab and the federal governments.

In the recently unveiled Punjab budget for the fiscal year 2019-20, the Punjab government has failed to directly mention any allocation for the Ghazi-Barotha water supply project but it has listed Rs9.568 billion for water supply projects in the province under the head of estimated expenditures. Curiously, this was down from the Rs14.597 billion that the province spent on water supply schemes in the province in the outgoing fiscal year of 2018-19.

The budget documents separately list Rs22.4 billion for expenditure on water supply development projects in the province. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2019.