ISLAMABAD: Amid a shortage of water in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the business of illegal water bouzers and hydrants is on the rise, while the local administrations have failed to stem the rise of private tankers mafia as well as commercial tube wells extracting groundwater with impunity.

According to rough estimates, hundreds of illegal hydrants and tankers were being run in the twin cities, which needed to be regularised by local authorities, like the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

A tanker costs Rs2,200 to Rs2,500, and people who face water shortage in their respective areas have no option but to depend on these tankers to fulfill their water needs. However, the provision of water to the residents is the sole responsibility of the CDA in Islamabad and Wasa in Rawalpindi, and both authorities have failed to meet this duty due to “their limited resources”. Presently, CDA’s main sources of water are Simly Dam and its tube wells, and Wasa depends on the water it gets from Rawal Dam and its tube wells.

However, the rapid rise of these hydrants has nearly dried up groundwater sources. “Due to illegal hydrants…our whole village has dried up. It is unfair that a person is extracting the share of water meant for the whole village and selling it,” said Iftikhar Shah, a resident of Dhoke Syedan. On the other hand, the owner of a hydrant said he was pumping water from his land and therefore no one else should have any objection to it.

Official terms private tanker services unfortunate necessity due to capacity constraints

Recently, the CDA disconnected around 40 illegal water supply connections. “For the past several months, water supply to Islamabad has been severely affected due to illegal connections. Water pressure in several sectors reduced drastically and the number of complaints was increasing daily,” an official press release said.

When contacted by Dawn, a senior official of Islamabad District Administration said if the admin did take action against illegal hydrants then hundreds of people would have no other option to get water for their daily use. “It is the responsibility of the government to provide water to the people and if I shut down private tanker services, it will create chaos,” he added. He said unless the CDA conducted a survey and designated areas for private water tube wells, any action against the existing services would create multiple problems.

In light of a high court order issued last year, the Rawalpindi district administration formed a committee to collect data about illegal hydrants and to ensure the supply of clean water to citizens at a reasonable price.

However, the committee has not been notified. A senior official of the district administration told Dawn that the district administration has completed the survey of the illegal hydrants under its administrative control and found more than 89 hydrants in the district.

When approached, Wasa spokesman Umer Farooq said that Wasa completed the survey of the area and found 59 illegal water hydrations in the city areas which it would regularise. He said the district administration formed a committee to fix the rates of the water tanker charges. The official said the agency would ensure the quality of clean drinking water to the citizens through these hydrants.

Mushroom growth of tubewells

Meanwhile, in the Khanna East area – a sprawling residential locality along the Expressway – the mushroom growth of private tube wells meant for commercial use has drastically depleted the water table, residents have complained.

They said the CDA and the ICT administration failed to keep a check on the rapid growth of deep boreholes (tube wells) in the area. They pointed out that during the last couple of years, deep boreholes, some as deep as 600 to 700 feet, had sprung up close to each other, drying up most household boreholes in the area.

According to the residents, roughly 10 tube wells have come up along the Service Road. They pointed out that earlier a borehole went as deep as 300 to 400 feet, but now that has gone down to 600-700 feet deep after the water table decreased considerably.

Chaudhry Arif, a resident, told Dawn that the CDA and the ICT had shirked from their responsibility to stop the rampant growth of deep boreholes along the Service Road. He said now the people had started installing tube wells in open plots in the streets to sell water.

Mr Arif said the residents of his street had approached the relevant authorities but to no avail.

Allah Ditta, another resident, alleged the relevant officials let the owners of these tube wells off the hook after taking money. He pointed out that the area’s assistant commissioner had recently stopped operations of tube wells on public complaints only to see the activity resume again after a few days.

The residents said the authorities should curb the business and impose heavy fines on the people operating tube wells without obtaining a no-objection certificate. They feared if the practice was not stopped it would lead to complete drying up of underground water.

CDA Sanitation Director Sardar Khan Zimri told Dawn that the civic authority didn’t look after such issues in the rural areas of Islamabad and that the matter rested with the ICT or the local government. He, however, said banning private tube wells meant that the authorities would have to ensure government water supply to the residents, which was not possible.

Mr Zeeshan, the assistant commissioner in Khanna, told Dawn that operations of such tube wells were stopped from time to time on public complaints, but the owners got the orders revoked through the courts. He said any tube well operating in a residential area on a commercial basis would be sealed.— Aamir Yasin in Rawalpindi also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2023