ISLAMABAD: The growing scarcity of water in Islamabad echoed in the National Assembly on Thursday. The lawmakers were told that a detailed assessment was underway on the future requirements of water in the city which has seen a rapid growth in its population with no new water project for almost three decades.

In response to a question asked by MNA Shamim Ara, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Javed Abbasi said Islamabad has been facing an increase in its population but there was no immediate plan for construction of a new dam for the capital. However, he said a detailed assessment of the future requirement of potable water in the city was underway.

The minister said after completion of the assessment, decisions will be taken about new resources, adding there was a proposal for the uprising of Simly Dam as well.

Meanwhile, in a written reply, the house was told that Simly Dam located at 35 km northeast of Islamabad was owned by the Capital Development Authority. It said that 1,700 major/minor leakages had been rectified by replacing the affected distribution lines during the last two years. This helped save 8-10 MGD water.

No immediate plan to construct new dam, minister tells National Assembly

Challans for wastage of water such as overflowing from underground/overhead tanks, washing of cars, porches and driveways were also being served on a daily basis.

It may be noted here that no new source of potable water has been explored for the last almost three decades even though the population of Islamabad has seen fast growth due to urbanisation and migration of people from other parts of the country.

However, the CDA has been focusing on the construction of roads as currently over Rs50 billion projects are being executed in the capital.

Similarly, the CDA has also launching new housing schemes, including development of new sectors.

In addition, the business of private housing schemes, including apartment projects, is also thriving in Islamabad, but the sources of water remained the same as they were in the 1990s.

Though several announcements were made in the past to start projects such as construction of the proposed Chirrah, Shahdara, Chinyot dams, extension of Khanpur Dam and above all the Ghazi Barotha project to bring water from Indus River, the CDA and successive governments could not translate the announcements into reality.

CDA officials say 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 at 2.2 million. Now it is believed to be around three million.

The officials said in summers the residents face water shortage and if steps were not taken in coming years, the city could face a major crisis-like situation.

CDA’s own documents showed that the water demand in 2020 was about 215 million gallon per day (mgd) and projected to be about 278 mgd in 2030 and 411 mgd in 2040. Currently, the CDA has three main sources - Simly Dam, Khanpur Dam and tubewells - and all these sources are providing around 70 mgd, which is far less than the requirement.

Earlier, during the question hour session, the lawmakers also took up the issue of encroachment in Islamabad’s markets and deputationist officers who have been joining the CDA for the last eight years.

The lawmakers pleaded that vacant seats in CDA should be filled thorough new recruitment and Mr Abbasi told the house that efforts were being made to get approval from the government for starting recruitment in CDA.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2023