ISLAMABAD: With Rawalpindi and Islamabad confronted with growing demand for water, the revised PC-I of the Ghazi Barotha water project still has not been approved four years on, the National Assembly was informed.

The PC-I, which was submitted in 2019, had been designed to provide 100 million gallons per day (MGD) each to residents of the water-scarce twin cities.

In response to a question asked by Member of National Assembly (MNA) James Iqbal last week, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, in his written reply, briefed the National Assembly about the fate of the project, which was conceived in 2008 and has still not moved beyond files.

“The project could not be implemented due to non-approval of the project’s PC-I amounting to Rs9,191,443 (M) submitted during November 2021, non-finalisation of funding source and non-allocation of requisite funds/budget subsequently. Furthermore, consent of the government of Punjab for contributing their funding share, being the beneficiary of the project, is awaited as well,” the minister told the house.

Non-approval of PC-I, lack of funds reasons behind delay, NA told

He added that the project was conceived by CDA to supply water from Tarbela Dam Reservoir to the twin cities. The main reason for initiating this project was to meet the present shortfall and future water supply demands on a long term basis as the existing resources are insufficient to meet the water demands of both cities, he said.

“The project was planned to be implemented in three phases. The project (phase-I) was assigned to the government-owned entity (Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) on Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) mode as per approval of the federal cabinet. The stipulated timeline for completion of the project was four years and as per TOR’s, FWO was required to engage consultants for updating feasibility studies and preparation of design.

“However, the PC-I of the project could not be materialised due to non-approval of the project PC-I,” he said.

On the other hand, the capital city, has been facing shortage of water as it faces big gaps in demand and supply. Currently, the CDA is supplying around 70 MGDs against the need of 220. However, no new source is being explored to meet the demand of water in a city, which has been constantly facing growth in its population and infrastructure.

The CDA has been carrying out construction work on five new sectors – I-15, 1-12, E-12, C-14 and C-15 - besides launching new apartment schemes. Similarly, businesses of private housing societies and apartment buildings have been facing growth unabatedly, but without new sources of water.

Though, several announcements were made in the past to start Ghazi Barotha project and other small projects including construction of the proposed Chirrah, Shahdara, Chiniot dams, but the CDA and successive governments could not translate the announcements into reality.

CDA officials said the last water project - Khanpur Dam - was launched in the 90s. At that time, the population of the city was around 600,000, which in the census 2017 was recorded as 2.2 million. Now, it is believed to be around 3 million.

They said that there is high time for the civic agency to make investment in water-related projects instead of roads and interchanges. It is relevant to note here that development works, roads and interchanges worth over Rs60 billion are in progress in Islamabad while work is in progress for development of new sectors.

“We are not against new roads and interchanges, sectors and housing schemes, these all are need of the city, but the major need of this city is water, therefore, besides focusing on development projects, due focus should be paid on the water issue,” said an official of the CDA.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2023