High and dry: Despite rains, water tanks to remain empty

Ghazi-Barotha water project in doldrums, CDA to rely on rationing of water to meet demands.

ISLAMABAD:

Like previous years, the city managers will solely rely on rationing of water rather than exploring new water sources to cope with the severe shortage of the commodity in the federal capital during summer.

“Despite the fact that the city is growing fast and the CDA faces a water shortage of around 106 million gallons per day (MGD) during peak summer season, we still don’t have any plans to pursue the execution of the Ghazi-Barotha Water Project,” a senior officer of the water management wing of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Thursday. The Ghazi-Barotha project, if taken up, could ensure sufficient water supply to the twin cities till 2050.

The officer wishing not to be named said that the estimated population of Islamabad was around 1.757 million and the average demand of the water was 176 MGD. “Peak cumulative water production from available sources including Simly Dam, Khanpur Dam and tube wells is 84 MGD, which drops down to 62 MGD during peak summer season, leaving a shortage of 106 MGD,” the official said.

He said that the project of conduction of water from Indus River system to Islamabad and Rawalpindi was still on papers with no progress on ground.

Ghazi-Barotha Water Project

According to official records available with The Express Tribune, the federal cabinet in 2004, while taking into account the severe water shortage in the capital city, decided that long term solutions to water shortage were needed to be found to help catalyse the development process in Islamabad.

After a study, the conduction of water from Tarbela Dam has been found as the most optimal choice to meet the present and future water requirements of the twin cities on a long-term basis. The Council of Common Interest (CCI) in June 2011 also approved the water allocation of 400 cusecs for phase-I of the project. It was estimated that an amount of $1.2 billion would be required to execute it.

It was proposed that a concessional loan for the project would be obtained from China.

Moreover, a no objection certificate (NOC) from the Economic Affairs Division, Ministries of Finance and Law & Justice and approval from the prime minister was also obtained to sign a MoU with China.

On July 18, 2012, the CDA requested the Economic Affairs Division to hold negotiations with the government of China/Exim Bank for approval of concessional loan for the project. Since then, the authority is awaiting but in vain.

CDA Member Engineering Sanaullah Aman, who is also responsible for water management, talking to The Express Tribune, said that the project was aimed to draw 200 million gallons of water per day.

He said that the study regarding the project was already complete and the authority just needed the approval of the concessional loan.

He said that several issues including provinces’ concerns over water sharing from the Indus River delayed the project. He said that all the provinces except Sindh have agreed to share small portion of their water allocation from Indus with the twin cities.

He said that a meeting to review the water management for summer season also held at the CDA headquarters.

Talking about the short-term strategy to cope with the water shortage in Islamabad during summer, Aman said that a significant increase in water level in Simly Dam and Khanpur Dam had been recorded after recent spell of rains.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2013.