Three water treatment plants approved

In order to address the existing water crisis being faced by Rawalpindi and Islamabad, approval has been granted to the project of installing three new stateof-the-art sewage treatment plants to treat the water of Rawal Dam, the largest source of drinking water in the twin cities.

According to sources, the work on this project will start in July this year while the estimated project cost will be around Rs6.07 billion. The project will be completed in nine months. Sources said the catchment area of Rawal Dam is around 106.25 square meters which are spread through Murree Hills and Bani Gala to Rawal Dam.

They said keeping in view the wide catchment area, it was decided to expand and increase the water treatment plants. The sources said that the project will be jointly completed by Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) Rawalpindi. The Central Development Working Party (CDWP), located at Planning & Development Division, Planning Commission, Islamabad, which is a clearing house for any provincial project, has also approved the project.

Meanwhile, WASA has also prepared a plan for further expansion of the Rawalpindi water supply sewage treatment plant, the study of which has been completed. The water storage capacity in Rawal Dam is 1,752 acre feet while at present the water storage in the dam is 1,748 acre feet. Rawal Dam was built in 1962. It supplies water to both Rawalpindi and Islamabad and is, in fact, the main source of water supply to the twin cities. The sources said the old water treatment plants have fallen short, hence, the installation of three new sewage water treatment plants will increase water purity. Tenders will be issued in the next month for the implementation of this project, they said.

Rawal Dam supplies 25 million gallons of water daily to the garrison city. The installation of a new water treatment plant will also increase this supply, while WASA has also planned to construct two large water tanks at Rawal Dam along with the WASA Colony Quarters. During the new financial year 2023-24, a smalldiameter steel pipeline will also be laid inside the old dilapidated cemented water supply line from Rawal Dam to Rawalpindi to make it usable. This will increase the 10 to 15 million gallons of water supply to the garrison city.