RAWALPINDI, Nov 18: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has not yet been able to pay its Rs292.841 million share of the Khanpur Dam water project’s maintenance and electricity charges, Dawn has learnt from well-placed sources.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) for the second time has sent the bill to the RCB. However, the payment has not been made so far, the sources said.

The RCB has cited a financial crisis as the main reason for its inability to make the payment. Besides, it has also raised objections over the amount which, it says, is inflated.

“We have not fully benefited from the Khanpur Dam project as yet and are receiving only about five million gallons of water per day. The bills are too high. We have put this issue on the agenda of the next Board meeting,” a cantonment official said.

The total cost incurred on the project amounts to Rs566.599 million out of which Rs292.841 million are to be paid by the RCB, Rs84.326 million by the CDA, Rs22.780 million by the Rawalpindi Development Authority and Rs168.652 million by the federal government.

The sharing of expenses is in accordance with the quotas of water allocated to these authorities from the Khanpur Dam. The RCB will get 38.02mgd (million gallons per day), RDA 28.80mgd, CDA 11mgd and the federal government 22.22 mgd of water.

As such, the Khanpur Dam project has proved to be a white elephant, the burden of which is to be shifted to the consumers. This is evident from RCB plans to double the water charges on the start of full supply from Khanpur Dam.

The RCB has also not been able to pay the charges of its share of water from the Rawal Lake, which too run into millions of rupees. About 5mgd water is provided to the RCB from the Rawal Lake.

RCB chief executive officer Iftikhar Mir when asked whether the RCB was planning to pay the bills it owed to the CDA, said the RCB did not have enough revenues. The issue will be discussed with CDA officials, he added.

The Khanpur water has proved costly for us, he said and added, the civic body was running short of funds as the maintenance and electricity charges of water supply had turned out to be much higher than the revenue being generated out of it. The annual maintenance expenses of about 74 tubewells is Rs100 million, the water bills of which amounts to just Rs10 million, he cited an example. The CEO said the main reason for the big gap between expenses and revenues was that the billing system had been defective previously. There are some consumers who have not been sent their water bills for the last five years, he said.

However, he said, now a recovery campaign had been launched to recover these arrears. Things have been streamlined and the recovery has improved, he added.

Mr Mir said a recovery team comprising 10 officials had been set up to ensure proper recovery of water arrears. Similarly, another team of 10 officials has been formed to ensure proper distribution of water bills among the consumers, he added.