CDA fails to address water scarcity

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is currently wasting 30 million gallons of water each day as it waits for the Planning Commission to upgrade the decades old water supply network.

Earlier, Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi pledged to take concrete steps towards overcoming the problem of water scarcity. However, nothing tangible has been done by the authority as yet.

Under the ‘Water Conservation and Draught Contingency Plan,’ the CDA chairman said steps would include identification of water leakages, repair of tankers, repair of tube wells and float valves and repair of taps in the government apartments.

An official in the Tube Well Division, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune that so far no money had been spent by the authority for the maintenance of tube wells in the capital.

“I started filing for the required amount of funds for the purpose but I was stopped from doing so,” he said.

According to the official, approximately Rs 26 million would be spent on 28 out-of-order tube wells. He maintained, however, that he was ordered to forward a summary of Rs 6 million only by a CDA official in the Water department.

“Furthermore, the finance directorate did not bother replying to that summary,” he said. “It is almost impossible for the ‘cash-strapped’ CDA to execute a multi-billion project to repair and replace the old water system. That is why the authority is trying to sign a deal with a foreign agency to fund the project.” According to the authority’s own estimation, the desired project would help save about 60 per cent of water being wasted from rusty and broken pipelines.

CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said that if this project is approved by the Planning Commission, it is likely to be initiated this year and would take another couple of years to be fully complete. Besides upgradation of the water supply network, the sewerage system would also be upgraded.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2010.