ISLAMABAD: Poor management at the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has worsened the water shortage problem in the federal capital as 13 of the civic body’s water tankers cannot be used due to various faults.Leakages in the main supply line from Simly Dam is also wasting large amounts of water.

A CDA official told Dawn that of the 13 faulty water tankers, five are double tankers with a capacity of carrying 20,000 litres of water each.

These five double tankers are parked at the CDA transport office in G-7 for many years. The civic authority provides water to residents of the city when water is short via these tankers. Currently, the authority has 17 operational tankers which are not enough to meet the growing demand for water.

A few days ago, CDA’s water directorate was devolved to the newly formed Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC), which is now responsible for repairing the faulty tankers.

City’s water shortage problem can be relieved if CDA’s 13 water tankers, leaks in conduction line from Simly are repaired

“Some 12 water tankers cannot be used due to various faults. Had CDA repaired these tankers, the water shortage this year would have been managed to some extent, said Chief Metropolitan Officer Asad Mehboob Kayani.

He said IMC has decided that the tankers will be repaired after Eid.

“These tankers can help overcome the water problem by 20pc,” he said, adding that IMC will also look into the issue of leaks in the supply line from Simly.

Sectors I-10 and I-11 are almost fully dependent on water tankers and before its water directorate was devolved to the IMC, CDA also supplied water in tankers to other sectors.

“We have exhausted all efforts to get water and when we ask the CDA to supply us water, they say they only have a few tankers. It is unfortunate that they have not yet repaired the tankers they have in order to provide relief to the residents,” said Mohammad Tahir, a resident of I-10.

The densely populated I-10 sector has been faced with the problem of water shortage since the 90s and the CDA has not been able to resolve this problem in all this time.

The adjoining sectors of I-9, I-8, G-10. G-11, G-13 and G-14 are also facing water shortage.

According to Minister for the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry’s statement in Senate regarding water shortage, the 2.17 million residents of the city require 211 million gallons of water per day with the CDA providing only 75 million gallons a day.

The minister had said that though all available sources in Islamabad were being optimally utilised, they are not enough to meet the city’s demands. He had said efforts were being made to meet the minimum requirement of water.

Islamabad is being supplied water from four sources with 48pc of its water coming from the Simly Dam, 12pc from Khanpur Dam, 35pc from tubewells and 5pc from small water works such as Shahdara, Korang, Noorpur and Saidpur.

The main conduction line from Simly Dam, which was laid down in the 1960s, is also leaking at different points and so far it seems like the CDA is not taking any steps to repair the leaks and save a large quantity of water.

CDA official said 37 of the 191 tubewells, which are to meet the demands of H-8, I-8, I-11 and the city’s model villages are not operational due to various faults and that there are no plans to repair these tubewells either.

The federal government has been working on a project for the conduction of water from the Indus River System via the Tarbela Dam for Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Under this project, both cities will be provided with 100 gallons of water per day each. The estimated cost of the project, according to the PC-1 prepared in 2006, is Rs37 billion which CDA officials estimate would have increased to Rs50 billion by now.

The Council of Common Interest approved the project in February of this year but the CDA is yet to make significant developments to start the project.

In his inaugural speech a few days ago during the first IMC session, Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz vowed to start the project.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2016