RAWALPINDI: To enhance the storage capacity of Rawal Dam so the garrison city could get 50 to 60 million gallon daily (MGD) water, the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and Small Dam Organisation (SDO) have formed a four-member committee to make suggestions to send to the Punjab government within a week.

“Rawal Dam is one of the main water reservoirs for the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. However, since its construction in 1962, silting has caused over 50pc loss to its storage capacity,” a senior official of Wasa told Dawn.

He said the government wanted to increase the water storage capacity from 30,000 acre feet to 68,000 acre feet to cater to the needs of water for the garrison city for the next 50 years at least.

“The dam’s original capacity was 40,000 acre feet but due to silting it has reduced to 30,000 acre feet. The water filtration plant installed at the dam can clean 28 MGD,” he said.

Silting has caused over 50pc loss to reservoir’s storage capacity since its construction, says official

However, he said Wasa managed to get 23 MGD water from the filtration plant at the dam.

“After increasing the capacity, the agency will be able to get 50-60 MGD water from the dam to provide it to all the union councils and bulk water to Pakistan Railways, Military Engineering Services (MES) and other military organisations.

“There are two proposals to increase the water capacity of the dam. One is to increase the height of the dam by five feet from all the sides and the second to desilt the lake,” he said. However, there is also a proposal for the construction of an upstream dam.

He said experts and engineers would see the best option after checking the foundations of the dam and the capacity of the structure. He said the engineers would also check the proposal to expand the lake to Banigala as it has no space towards Quaid-i-Azam University and Diplomatic Enclave.

When contacted, Wasa spokesman Umer Farooq said the agency and SDO had initiated work to chalk out proposals.

“The proposed life of any dam is 50 years but Rawal Dam is completely safe as the provincial government adopted preventive measures to avoid silting in the dam during the last many years,” he said.

He said the water storage capacity of the dam would be enhanced by increasing the height of the dam. However, he said a final decision would be announced by the experts.

He said at present Wasa got 23 MGD water from Rawal Dam which was not enough to meet the water requirements. By enhancing the storage capacity of the dam, Wasa would not need to establish 80 to 90 tubewells in the garrison city.

He said the four-member committee formed by Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Chairman Tariq Mehmood Murtaza comprised senior officials of Wasa and SDO.

“The committee will submit its report within a week to send it to the Punjab government,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2022