RAWALPINDI: The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has recommended that the Punjab government bear only 25 per cent cost of construction, feasibility study and land acquisition of the Ghazi Barotha project to bring water from Indus River to Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

A senior official of Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) told Dawn that Wasa had sent a summary to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar through the RDA with a recommendation to share only 25pc cost of the project. He explained that the city under the administrative control of the provincial government will get only 25pc share of water with 50pc going to Islamabad and the remaining 25pc to the cantonment boards.

He said the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had asked the Punjab government through Wasa to equally share the project cost as 100 million gallons daily (MGD) each would be provided to Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Accordingly, PC-I for land acquisition amounting to Rs3.154 billion was prepared by the CDA which was considered by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on June 6, 2020, and cleared in principle with certain directions, including the finalisation of financing mechanism with stakeholders.

City to get 25pc share of water with 50pc going to Islamabad and remaining to cantonment boards, says official

Since the project cost as well as the water is to be equally shared by the federal and the Punjab governments for Rawalpindi, the CDA requested provision of funds amounting to Rs1.577 billion for land acquisition.

However, the CDA was told that 100 MGD share proposed for Rawalpindi city was further distributed between the cantonment boards and Rawalpindi city (Wasa service area) at the 50:50 ratio.

The cantonment boards are administratively controlled by the federal government and funds to them are also provided by Islamabad. Therefore, the Punjab government through Wasa will only contribute 25pc cost of the project.

In April 2005, the CDA assigned a study to MS MM Pakistan and MS Mott MacDonald, UK. This scheme was principally approved by the Punjab chief minister in 2006.

The consultants studied seven locations for abstraction of water and construction of intake structure. The conduction of water from Ghazi Barotha Lake was found as the most optimal choice to meet the present demand and future requirements of the twin cities.

The Council of Common Interest (CCI) in June 2011 approved the water allocation for Rawalpindi for Phase-l of the project out of the share of the Punjab. The water allocation for Islamabad was approved by the CCI on March 29, 2016.

All efforts have been made by CDA as well as Wasa and RDA in the past for arranging foreign as well as local funding for the project considering its cost. However, by one reason or the other, none of them got success. The federal government has now revived the project on the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

A senior official of Wasa told Dawn that the present water supply to the Wasa service area was 51 MGD from all sources - Rawal Dam (10 million gallons), Khanpur Dam (six million gallons) and 480 tubewells (35 million gallons).

“The present sources are not enough to cater to the future requirement of the growing population of Rawalpindi city which is presently more than two million. Drinking water availability position in Islamabad and Rawalpindi cantonment boards is also very alarming. They are mainly dependent on Simly and Khanpur water reservoirs,” he said.

When contacted, Wasa Managing Director Raja Shaukat Mehmood said the only solution to the water shortage in Rawalpindi and Islamabad was a project to bring water from the Indus River.

He said Wasa had informed the CDA that the city area will get 25pc share of water so the provincial government will share 25pc cost of the project. However, he said the government would make a decision in this regard soon.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2021