Govt to maintain Islamabad's water channels

To facilitate and maintain the water channels which run through two adjoining provinces before emptying in the federal capital, the federal government on Wednesday said that an agreement will be signed between multiple departments in the respective territories for the purpose.

This was disclosed during a meeting to review the project to supply water to the water-stressed twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi from the Khanpur Dam. The meeting was chaired by the Federal Planning Minister Asad Umar and was attended by the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Capital Development Authority (CDA) Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan, senior officials of CDA, the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB), the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and the planning ministry.

Participants of the meeting were briefed about the progress made on various initiatives to address the water supply issue in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Representatives of IMC told participants of the meeting that water supply to various sectors of the federal capital has improved considerably after they completed maintenance and rehabilitation of multiple tube-wells, supply lines and cut illegal connections. Some of these activities, they said, had been pending for quite some time due to a shortage of resources.

The special assistant Awan briefed participants on steps being taken to enhance the overall supply of water to the twin cities from the Khanpur Dam.

In this regard, he said that they were working on getting the concerned departments in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Punjab and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) to sign an interdepartmental agreement on facilitating the regular maintenance of water channels which run through their respective territories.

The agreement will be signed between the IMC, CDA and RCB in the twin cities, along with other concerned departments of K-P and Punjab.

It was further decided to summon the K-P chief secretary in the next meeting on the subject to smooth the process.

Umar directed the CDA to take the lead and draft a detailed plan covering all aspects of rehabilitation as well as long-term operation and maintenance of the water supply system. Meanwhile, representatives of the CDA told participants of the meeting that the process to hire consultants for the Ghazi-Barotha water supply project was at an advanced stage.

The meeting directed CDA to ensure that the process is completed as per the stipulated timeline.

Last month, the CDA - who has been tasked with securing real estate for the project which will bring water from the Indus River at Tarbela Dam to the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi - had said that they were working on developing a new policy on acquiring land for the project.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2020.