WASA seeks leg up for ‘mega’ water project

Project stalled since 2006, aims to provide additional 200 mgd water to twin cities

RAWALPINDI:

The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has proposed the long pending Ghazi Barotha water supply project at the Indus River in this year’s annual development programme as a ‘permanent solution’ to resolves water supply issues in twin cities of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and the adjoining cantonment areas.

It has proposed funding form the Capital Development Authority (CDA), and cantonment boards. Wasa has also agreed to contribute 25 per cent share for the project.

The total estimated cost of phase one of the project has been calculated at Rs22.98 billion.

The project will be developed over three phases. As part of phase I and II, an additional 200 million gallons of water per day (MGD) will be available for the people of the twin cities. After the completion of phase III, the water supply will increase 250 MGD will be available per day in the third phase.

To develop a perennial source of potable water for the twin cities, a project regarding the conduction of water from the Indus River System at Tarbela Dam had been initiated in 2004-05 when the project cost was estimated at Rs17 billion. However, the project was shelved in 2009 only to be revived later.

At that time, there were issues over water distribution, with at least three provinces – Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan – refusing to share water of Indus River with local bodies of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, saying it should come out of Punjab’s share.

In 2016, during a meeting of the Council of Common Interest, the provinces agreed on the project after which the federal government gave the CDA the green light to initiate the project for bringing in water from the River Indus. At that time, a CDA official had commented that the project cost was likely to have gone beyond Rs50 billion.

Now, Punjab has agreed to give this water from its quota and has surrendered its share quota of 200 MGD to Islamabad Rawalpindi. Sindh and KPK will take their share as usual.

The project concept (PC) 1 of the land acquisition worth Rs3.1 billion project was cleared in 2021.

Under this project, a water structure will be built in Tarbela Dam. It will include a water treatment plant and a water filtration plant for the twin cities as well as a pump house.

A 60-kilometre pipeline of 80 inches will be laid from Ghazi Barotha to the Sangjani Water Filtration Plant.

Wasa has formally included this mega project in the new district development program and proposed to launch it at the beginning of the new year and has also started a regular campaign for it.

One reason for the project, according to a Wasa document, is that water extracted from tube wells in Rawalpindi was no longer viable due to depleting water levels.

If the water project from Ghazi Brotha is completed, then it would resolve all water supply issues in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The water pipeline from Sangjani to Rawalpindi, Islamabad and the cantonments has already been laid with another 60 km of new pipeline will have to be laid from Ghazi Barotha Canal to Sangjani.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2023.