ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has reduced water supply by 3.63 million gallons per day (MGD) as a measure to conserve water in view of the prevailing dry spell and lack of rains, the daily water report prepared by the authority showed.

Currently, the authority is supplying 47.97 million gallons of water per day (MGD) to the residents against the total capacity of 111.60 MGD from nine different sources of water.

The report said the authority had squeezed above 70 per cent of the normal supply from Simly Dam, the main source of drinking water. At present about 13 MGD water is being supplied from Simly Dam against normal supply of 42MGD.

Water level in Simly dam has reportedly dropped down to 26 feet during the prevailing dry spell. The normal water level of Simly Dam reservoir is stated to be 2296 feet, while the water level recorded on Wednesday was 2270 feet.

The report said the water supply from Kurang-I water supply scheme had stopped, while the normal water production capacity of the scheme was 2.40 MGD.

Similarly, only 0.10 MGD water is being supplied from Kurang-II against normal supply of 1.60 MGD water, the report added. About 0.50 MGD water is being received from Said Pur against normal supply of 0.80 MGD. Supply from Shadara has declined by 0.70 MGD against the normal capacity of 1.60 MGD. The report said water supply from Noorpur Shahan had decreased by 0.50 MGD, as only 0.24 MGD water was being received against normal supply of 0.70 MGD. The report said owing to power failure, the daily supply of water from all the 180 tubewells had further reduced. About 20.50 MGD water was supplied from the tubewells on Friday whereas the total capacity of these tubewells was stated to be 34 MGD. Similarly, only 6.43 MGD water was being supplied from augmentation water supply schemes against the total capacity of 12 MGD. Water supply from Khanpur Dam had been stopped, while 2.78 MGD was being supplied from Badhana reservoir, which was established near Khanpur Dam. The normal supply of water from Badhana is 16.50 MGD. In order to consume the present reserve of water in the dam, the CDA has rationalised the supply of water from this source. Shortage of rain in the current winter is stated to be the main cause of sudden decline in water level in dams. As a result, the residents of Islamabad have been facing acute shortage of water for over two months.

An official of the CDA told Dawn that the decision on reducing the water supply was made to store and supply water for daily use till monsoon season. “It’s right time when the chairman has taken the decision to squeeze water supply from the dam,” he added. He said following the decision, water in eight sectors of the federal capital like G-6, G-7, G-8, G-9, G-10, G-11, I-9, I-10, sector of F series, etc, was being supplied on alternate days or three times in a week. Responding to a query, he said the dead storage point in Simly lake was quiet higher as compared to other dams because its water was mainly used for drinking and other purposes. He said if the dead storage point reduced further, the residents will receive contaminated water.