ISLAMABAD, April 20: With summer season setting in, the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been hit by water shortage, belying the civic agencies claim recently that there will be no shortage of the commodity after sufficient storage in three major reservoirs.

The city fathers of the twin cities last month claimed that in the wake of heavy rainfall in February and March there will be no shortage of water in summer.

But sources in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) told Dawn on Friday that Islamabad was facing shortfall of three million gallons per day (mgd) from Khanpur Water Supply Project due to some fault that has developed in its filtration plant.

They said the authority had been receiving 9MGD from the project but due to the fault, the supply had dropped to 6MGD.

However, they said the authorities concerned were trying to remove the fault in the filtration plant to improve the supply.

They said the existing water reserves in Khanpur Dam were quite satisfactory due to more than normal rains in winter.

When contacted, the CDA’s director water supply, Jamilur Rehman, said the authority would not go for water rationing in Islamabad this summer due to adequate water reserves in Simly Dam, Khanpur Dam and other reservoirs.

“The existing reserves of drinking water in Islamabad are sufficient to cater to the needs of its residents till the coming monsoon season,” he added.

He said water level at Simly Dam recorded on Friday was 2,309 feet against its highest level of 2,315 feet. However, last year, during these days, water level had been recorded at 2,270 feet.

The official said a total of 67MGD water was being supplied to the residents of Islamabad including 35 mgd from Simly Dam.

“In winter, the total requirement of water in Islamabad remains 80MGD but in summer it increases to 110MGD,” he said.

Mr Rehman said the authority had decided not to go for water rationing this year so that the problem of water shortage could be minimised to a maximum extent.

He said usually the CDA received about 1,000 complaints of water shortage everyday during summer but this year an average of 650 to 700 complaints per day were expected. “The reason being that this year there would be no water rationing,” the official said.

Responding to a question about the mega project under which water would be drawn from Indus at Ghazi-Barotha, the director water supply said the project was the only remedy to overcome water scarcity in the capital on permanent basis.

However, Rs30 billion is stated to be in doldrums after the CDA refused to accept the directives of the Planning Commission to equally share Indus water with Rawalpindi city.

He said there were 30 water tankers available with the CDA out of which 26 were operational. He said 15 more tankers would be made available to ensure swift delivery of water to the residents.

A number of localities in Rawalpindi, including Raja Bazaar, Allama Iqbal Colony, Pindora and Khayaban-i-Sir Syed, were facing water shortage.

Talking to Dawn, Managing Director, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), Lt-Col (retired) Islamul Haq said: “I can simply say that people who do not get water in their houses should directly lodge their complaints with me and I will try to restore water supply to their localities.”

He said sufficient water was available at the dams, but there were only 11 tankers available to supply the commodity to people living in localities faced with the shortage.