RAWALPINDI, June 6: Almost 3.3 million gallons of water supplied to the city is lost in the shape of line losses, leakages and theft from the supply-line every day, sources told Dawn here on Thursday.

According to an estimation of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), the water deficit at source was calculated as 9.9 million gallons of water per day, which meant that by the time water was delivered to the consumers, this figure widened to 13.2 MGD.

Officials of Wasa claimed that they had reduced line losses.

“We brought down this figure from 25 to 15 per cent after a new pipeline was laid,” Director, Water Supply, Malik Akram, said.

A large part of the officially quoted figure of 15 per cent losses take place in the form of leakages from distribution system at Umarabad, Bagh Sardaran and Kali Tanki and near Girl Guide Centre.

This figure of water deficit is not all that simplistic, as it has several other dimensions — the inequal distribution pattern, illegal sucking of water from the distribution system and faulty system of need assessment.

This implies that the actual shortage being experienced by the residents of the city is much severe than what is being portrayed by these figures.

The Wasa officials accept that the problem of illegal sucking has intensified, and people draw water from the main supply-line, using pumps depriving others of their share. Moreover, the distribution system is erratic due to which some areas receive more water than others, which the Wasa officials attribute to the existence of “water pockets”.

This assessment, furthermore, does not take into consideration the water requirement of the Kutcha Abadis, where a large section of the city’s poor reside.

The consumer rights’ activists do not agree with Wasa’s calculation formula for determining water needs. Wasa puts the requirement at around 32MGD, however, the consumer groups claim that the average consumption rate per person is much higher and the city’s 0.9 million residents require about 50MGD.

Meanwhile, it has been further learnt that the ground water- level is receding at an alarming rate and decreased to 50 feet during last year only.

The water-level in the city has gone down to 200ft. The problem is much more pronounced in the older parts of the city, while in the newer localities it is slightly better. For example, in Khayaban-i-Sir Syed, the ground water-level is about 150 feet.

Though the situation has aggravated due to the drought, the unplanned construction, excessive drilling for water and decrease in vegetation have also played a significant role.

The civic agencies are also responsible for the situation as they have turned a blind eye to the violation of the approved construction plans.

The decrease in the water table has affected the performance of 15 per cent of the city’s tubewells.

The Wasa officials say the situation has forced them to curtail the supply timings of most of the tubewells by almost 20 per cent.

The officials, in their statement before the district council earlier this week, had assured that the crisis would be greatly resolved by the end of the current month, but this assurance was subject to the end of dry spell with timely start of monsoon rains.

The differences of Wasa with the RCB over the sharing of water from Khanpur Dam are far from over and sources in Wasa revealed that the agency would shortly be lodging a formal protest with the board over the violation of the sharing formula.