MURREE: Due to the long dry spell, Murree’s residents are facing a severe shortage of water.

Natural springs, the only water source for Murree Town’s rural residents – 80pc of the total population, have dried up, forcing locals to fetch water from distant areas.

People queue for hours at the remaining water sources in the area.

It has not rained in Murree and its adjoining areas for around two and a half months, and Met Office sources have said there will not be any considerably heavy rainfall in the next two months.

In Murree city, water comes from two main sources: Doonga Gali Hazara and Harnoi, but the pipeline from the Doonga Gali water source was laid some hundred years ago and is damaged in several places, because of which water is wasted as it travels to Murree.

The Neelum-Jhelum Bulk Water Supply Scheme (NJBWSS), which was initiated with an estimated Rs5 billion in funding from the PML-Q Punjab government was also stopped by the PML-N after it came into power, allegedly due to political rivalries.

According to the federal minister for petroleum and natural resources, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who was elected to the National Assembly from Murree, the project was abandoned because the cost of water under the NJBWSS would be too high for the average consumer. He said new schemes will be introduced to overcome Murree’s water shortage.

However, the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench ordered for the project to be resumed, after local Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Javed Iqbal Satti took the matter to court. The LHC said the federal government told the court the prime minister wanted to resume the project.

The project will now be completed in four years at a cost of Rs7.5 billion, which was allocated in the 2014-15 provincial budget. A year and a half later, no development has taken place regarding the project.

When it was initiated in 2006, the estimated cost was around Rs2 billion. It was abandoned in 2008, after Rs3 billion had already been spent.

Under the project, a 132KV grid station will be set up by the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) in Chaprian, at a cost of Rs1 billion. The station will power a filtration plant on the Jhelum River near Kotli Sattian, and pump water up the hills.

Murree Assistant Commissioner Arif Ali Awan said the bulk water supply scheme was a provincial scheme initially launched for the proposed New Murree City.

When that project was abandoned, the water scheme was also affected.

He said that because of pressure from locals and in consideration of the sum that had already been spent on the project, launching the project to supply water to Murree city was reconsidered.

He said whenever the federal or provincial government issues directions; the project will be started accordingly.

Mr Awan said measures have been taken to upgrade the existing supply system, including the replacement of pipelines in city areas and installation of water meters to check water theft.

He said three water tankers have been borrowed from the Rawalpindi Water and Sanitation Agency to fetch water from far-off water springs and alleviate the water shortage in the area.

Mr Awan added that if rainfall does not occur for a long span of time, the shortage will be difficult to overcome.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2016