Islamabad: CDA to improve water supply system with Korean assistance

[Naveed Yaseen]

Mobarik A. Virk
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) in an attempt to bolster the potential to supply enough water to the ever increasing population of the federal capital is working to launch the much talked-about ‘Indus Water Supply Project’ from Ghazi Brotha to Islamabad as early as possible.

The idea was under consideration for a long time already but hardly any meaningful steps were taken to launch this project. In a latest attempt the authority has entered into some serious discussions over the issue with a South Korean state-owned company of high repute, ‘M/s K-Water’ when a high-level meeting was held between K-Water Executive Director Oh Sung Hoon and CDA Chairman Tariq Mahmood Khan, assisted by senior concerned officials on Thursday afternoon.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was already signed earlier between the government of Korea and Pakistan according to which the ‘K-Water’ has committed to invest US$ 300 million in this project and the rest of the funds were required to be arranged by the Government of Pakistan.

The sources in the CDA told ‘The News’ that now this particular issue of enhancing the capacity for supplying clean drinking water to the residents of not only the federal capital but also of Rawalpindi is being contemplated seriously. They said the realization is dawning that the two major sources of water supply to the twin cities, Simly water reservoir and the Rawal Dam, are fast depleting and their output is falling short of the demand.

“This project, in which conduction line would be laid from Ghazi Brotha near Tarbela Dam in the NWFP to Islamabad, once completed would be providing 200 million gallons of water per day that would be equally distributed between Islamabad and Rawalpindi,” the sources in the CDA said.

“We are aware of the fact that the situation of water supply in twin cities is going to aggravate in coming years. To overcome this challenge, CDA is working on various options for continuous provision of water to the citizen and conduction of water from Tarbela to Islamabad/Rawalpindi is one of such schemes,” CDA Chairman Tariq Mahmood Khan said on Friday during a follow-up meeting with delegation of ‘K-Waters’.

Meanwhile, the Director-General (Water Wing), Sanaullah Aman, told ‘The News’ that the authority has entered into a ‘non-committal MoU with K-Water for this project. “It is going to take some time before things will clear up on this matter,” the Director-General (Water Wing) said.

While giving the details of the project he said that it would be a four-year project for which the ‘PC-I’ is to be submitted with the Planning Commission within a week’s time. “The Planning Commission will take up the issue and will accord its approval after reviewing the project in detail following which the CDA would launch the further process in the project,” Aman said.

He said that the ‘K-Water’ has already agreed to invest US$ 300 million in this project while the rest of the money required is to be raised by the CDA through the Government of Pakistan. “We have already approached the World Bank through the Economic Affairs Department (EAD) to seek assistance for the project. An outcome on this move is still awaited,” he said.

“However,” he added, “if we (CDA) failed to raised the required money for the project from the World Bank through the EAD, then the Korean company (K-Water) will help raise the funds for this project,” Aman said.

On the other hand, he said that the ‘MoU’ signed with the ‘K-Water’ for this project is ‘Non-Committal’ and a final agreement would be signed only after the project would be cleared for implementation by the Government of Pakistan and the required funds are ensured from the World Bank or other donors through EAD.

“After that open tenders would floated to award this project and if ‘K-Water’ still turned out to be the best bidder then the CDA will enter into formal agreement with the Korean company for execution of the project,” the DG (Water Wing) said.

About the execution of the project Aman said that after the six months, that are required for clearance of ‘PC-I’ by the Planning Commission, the next phase would be that of designing, estimation, land acquisition and other technical matters that would take at least one year to complete.

“After that was done then the physical work on ground would start and it is estimated to take three years to complete when the water would start flowing through this conduction line from Ghazi Brotha to Islamabad,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the ‘K-Water,’ Oh Sung Hoon, said that the company would provide, if awarded contract, clean drinking water as per standards set by the World Health Organization. He also said that K-Waters is supplying clean drinking water to the 85% population of Korea.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=182809