Project to enhance dam’s capacity okayed

A project has been approved to increase the storage capacity of Rawal Dam — the main source of water for the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad — as the demand for water increases for the growing population.

The Rawal Dam, located in Islamabad, is one of the major sources of water supply for the twin cities. However, with the passage of time and owing to the obstructions in the catchment area of the dam and rapid silting, its storage capacity has reduced significantly.

On the one hand, the storage capacity of the dam has decreased dramatically and on the other hand, due to the increasing population of the twin cities, the water requirements have increased several folds over the years.

The sources said that funds for the mega project will be arranged by the federal and Punjab governments, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. According to the sources, the World Bank has agreed to fund the project to make it a more environmentally-friendly project.

 The Rawal Dam, built in 1962, had the capacity to store 43,000 cubic feet of water which has now reduced to 28,000 cubic feet of water due to silting.

 The dam has lost half of its capacity due to silting, the sources said. The project aims to enhance the storage capacity of additional 60 million gallons of water in the dam. A technical committee has been directed to prepare TORs for the project within seven days. These recommendations will be sent to the Punjab government for formal approval. The committee would submit its report to the RDA chairman within one week and a plan would be submitted to the Punjab government for final approval.

Rawalpindi Development Authority Chairman Tariq Murtaza said that the project has been approved and the feasibility study of the project will be completed in one month and work on the mega project will be started by the end of March.

He said that along with this, they will also construct two large underground water tanks on their own land adjacent to Rawal Dam and adjacent to the Water and Sanitation Agency Colony to further supply water to Rawalpindi city and Cantonment. Large water tanks will be built in the second phase of the project next to the spillways of the Rawal Dam and spillways bulk water will be collected in these water tanks instead of going to waste.

Official sources said that the 48-inch pipeline laid in 1979 from Rawal Dam to supply 28 million gallons of water to the city of Rawalpindi has become completely unusable. It will also be overhauled to increase the water supply to Rawalpindi up to 200,000 gallons of water per day.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2023.