RAWALPINDI: The groundwater table in the Rawalpindi city sharply depleted from 550 feet to 650 feet over the last six years due to an over-extraction, the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) stated in a report.

A senior official of Wasa told Dawn that the agency had recommended a ban on the installation of tubewells in the city areas. He said the government should construct new dams for the supply of water to the residents instead of installing tubewells.

He said the groundwater sources would dry if the practice continued. In the city, there is no water recharging area to strengthen the water table for future requirements.

He said the city had experienced a rapid growth of population and the demand for more water resulted in over-exploitation of the groundwater reservoirs by sinking of tubewells.

He said unlike Lahore and inner Punjab, the groundwater table in Rawalpindi was not shallow but found in the form of small ponds which needed to be recharged. The rapid growth of population has eliminated the chances of recharging the groundwater.

“In the last seven years, 86 tubewells were installed in Rawal Town and 32 in Potohar Town. In 2010, there were total 320 tubewells to provide water to the citizens but in 2017 the number increased to 408.”

The official said 27 more tubewells would be installed in different areas of the city as a project had been approved by the provincial government to meet the water requirement of the residents in the coming summer season.

At present, the daily requirement of the Rawalpindi city is 60 million gallons of water daily (MGD) but the agency was providing 54 MGD to the residents leaving a shortage of six MGD.

When contacted, Wasa spokesman Umer Farooq admitted that the water table in the city was depleting fast and there was a need to construct dams.

He said apart from the tubewells, people also installed boring wells in their houses which was also depleting the water table. He said the provincial government had imposed a ban on private tubewells and boring wells.

He said a water shortage was looming large in the city and the construction of the new dams would be the only solution to the issue. He said the agency had no option but to install tubewells to meet the water shortage in the city as no new dam was constructed for the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2017