RAWALPINDI: Daducha Dam will end the drinking water shortage in the garrison city and overcome paucity of water for agricultural and industrial purposes.

This was stated by Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Liaquat Ali Chattha while chairing a meeting on Tuesday.

He directed that along with the legal team of the department concerned the director development and additional deputy commissioner revenue should attend the hearing of a case related to the Daducha Dam in the Supreme Court on Wednesday (today).

Director Development Nazia Sudhan, Additional Deputy Commissioner (revenue) Nabil Ali, director agriculture, executive engineer Small Dams Organisation and other concerned officials attended the meeting.

Commissioner directs officials to pursue court case to get stay lifted on construction of reservoir

He asked the officials to pursue the case with full preparation to convince the apex court of the importance of the project in order to lift the stay on the construction of the dam.

He said that after completion, the project will provide maximum benefit to the people.He said people whose land was being used in the construction of the dam will be given adequate and legitimate compensation.

However, he said that it will be an injustice with the people if hurdles were created in the construction of the dam.

“At present, the water demand of Rawalpindi is 65 million gallons per day which will reach 90 MGD in the coming period. The available water is 51 MGD. In such a case, Daducha Dam can provide 35 MGD of drinking water to the people of Rawalpindi after its construction,” he said.

Mr Chattha said water shortage had become a global problem and countries all over the world were looking for different options to meet the shortage.

“Pakistan is also one of the top countries suffering from the water crisis.Due to the non-construction of dams, the per capita availability of water here has decreased four times in the last 50 years,” he said.

“Punjab government has sensed the gravity of the issue and efforts are being made to overcome it. The construction of Daducha and other small dams is crucial to save millions of cusec of water from being wasted every year during floods,” he said.

Officials of Small Dams Organisation while giving a briefing about Daducha Dam said that Rs6.492 billion had been allocated for the project. The dam would be constructed at a distance of 25 kilometres from the garrison city.

“The dam will have a gross storage capacity of 60,000 acre feet and a target of three years has been set for its completion.Along with water storage, this dam will also be made a tourist point in terms of fish farming and tourism for which the tourism department has also been taken on board,” they said.

They said at present the dependence on groundwater for agriculture, industry and drinking water was increasing due to which the level of underground water was continuously decreasing.

“The solution to the shortage problem is the construction of dams, with the help of which the production of energy can also be increased,” they said.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2023