RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has decided to increase the storage capacity of the Rawal Dam to cater to the need of the water requirements of the Rawalpindi city.

The provincial government has asked the Small Dams Organisation (SDO) and the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) to conduct a feasibility study in this regard.

“In the study, the government will see whether or not it can use the adjoining localities such as Banni Gala for the expansion of the dam. Another proposal is to increase the height of the dam,” a senior official of Wasa told Dawn.

The total cost of the feasibility study will be Rs36 million, which will be shared by the SDO and Wasa. Besides, both the departments will form a joint committee to hire consultants for the study.

Wasa Managing Director Raja Shaukat Mehmood said the feasibility study would be started next month.

He said the government wanted to increase the water storage capacity of the dam to 68,000 acre feet to cater to the water requirements of the city for the next 50 years.

“The dam’s original capacity was 40,000 acre feet but due to silting, it has reduced to 30,000 acre feet,” he said and added that the water filtration plant installed at the dam could clean 28 million gallon of water (MGD).

After increasing the capacity, the agency will be able to get 35 MGD water from the dam to provide it to the 61 union councils and bulk water to the Pakistan Railways, Military Engineering Services (MES) and other military organisations.

There are also other proposals to increase the water capacity of the dam. A small dam will be constructed on the up and downstream while the height of the dam would be increased by 10 feet.

He said experts and engineers would be able to 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 by including some parts of Banni Gala to it as there was no space towards the Quaid-i-Azam University and the Diplomatic Enclave.

When contacted, former superintending engineer of SDO Mirza Zafar said the organisation had completed the initial work for the feasibility study two months ago.

“The proposed life of any dam is 50 years but the Rawal Dam is completely safe as the provincial government has adopted preventive measures to avoid silting in the reservoir during the last many years. A massive tree plantation was also carried out in the catchment area of the dam and on the hills of Murree.”

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 in this regard would be announced by the experts.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2014