Plan afoot to bring hydrants under tax net

Official says illegal tube wells will have electricity meters

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) on the order of the high court has completed a survey of all legal and illegal hydrants selling water across the district. Authorities have decided to enforce taxes, set their fixed rates and regularise them.

The move aims to generate revenue and do away with the illegal practice of charging exorbitant prices by these illegal hydrants hooked into dozens of illegal tube wells.

Private tankers continue to sell water from these hydrants to new housing societies in the city and Cantonment areas around the clock with per tanker costing between Rs3,500 and Rs7,000, depending on the distance from the illegal hydrants to the intended area.

Surprisingly, dozens of transformers have also been installed near these hydrants to supply uninterrupted electricity to the illegal hydrants connected to tube wells.

These illegal hydrants have been established across the district and in the garrison city including near the Swan River bridge where underground water reserves are in abundance.

Sources said that these hydrants will have meters and Rawalpindi’s Water and Sanitation Agency will carry out joint meter-readings with the Islamabad Electric Supply Company to solve the issue of inflated electricity bills of about 470 tube wells.

WASA Managing Director Wassa Tanveer Ahmed said that a high-level committee has been formed to oversee all new development works, schemes and projects.

He said that a plan for a water modelling study has also been prepared to check the underground water reserves. The project will be implemented at the beginning of the new year, he said adding that with the completion of the project, they will evaluate the underground water reservoirs in Rawalpindi and also identify viable water projects to meet the needs of the water in the future. He said that the WASA was also working on a project to store rainwater. He said that the rainwater will be stored in an underground tank in the WASA office.

He said that the water can be used for irrigation. The WASA official said that action has also been initiated against water defaulters and illegal connections.

Although the government claims to own the underground water reserves, in reality, the tanker mafia makes a profitable business through these illegal hydrants.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2022.