Islamabad: Myopic planning: Water crisis looms as new sectors planned

[Naveed Yaseen]

* CDA official says 40 percent development work in 10 new sectors is complete
* Launch of new sectors to increase demand for water

By Fazal Sher

ISLAMABAD: The capital is likely to face acute water shortage in the future, as the Ghazi Barotha Water Supply Project (GBWSP) of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is still pending and so is the replacement of decade old water supply systems.

On the other hand, 40 percent work for the launching of 10 new sectors of the capital has been completed. The consumption of water would obviously increase after the completion of new sectors.

“Currently the citizens are facing numerous problems due to the shortage of water and water crises in the capital would be further aggravated if the CDA launched new sectors and failed to execute the GBWSP and replace the old water lines,” said a CDA official while talking to Daily Times on Wednesday.

The official said that the CDA had completed 40 percent work for the launching of sectors I-17, H-16, D-13, E-13, F-13, C-13, C-14, C-15 and C-16. “It was the responsibility of the CDA officials to resolve water shortage problems before the launching of new sectors,” he said.

The CDA official said that the CDA failed to replace and upgrade the decade old water supply lines, which caused the wastage of around 40 percent of the total water available for the capital. Due to the low water table, the tube wells that were designed to pull 400 to 500 gallons of water per minute were pulling only 40 to 50 gallons of water.

“The tube well cannot extract water primarily because the ground water table has receded by almost 70 feet,” he said, adding that the existing sources of water for Urban Islamabad comprised of rain and ground water, whereas the main water sources of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) were Simly Dam on River Soan, Khanpur Dam on River Korang and tube wells.

The CDA official said that presently total supply of water in the capital was 60 million gallons per day (MGD), whereas the demand was 115 MGD

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg11_5