The federal capital is one of the few planned cities of the world where the residents enjoyed best civic services in the ‘70s and ‘80s. However, because of the rapid growth in the population and haphazard construction activities, the burden on the civic services is on the rise.

As a result, for the last two decades unavailability of water has become one of the biggest issues for the residents.

It may be mentioned that in the ‘90s the residents of the city faced water shortage only in summer season but during the last few years this basic commodity has become unavailable even in winters.

The residents initially got water through tankers but with the passage of time this service became hard to get due to the rising demand.

As the civic agency failed to ensure uninterrupted supply of water, the residents started boring to get water though there was a ban on it.

Boring temporarily resolved the water issue but due to the residents’ incessant dependence on it the underground water level dropped rapidly. In the ‘90s, water was available almost 30 to 50 feet below the surface but now it is found at a depth of 100 to 160 feet.

The residents of the city say the Capital Development Authority (CDA) should take both short and long-term measures to resolve the issue.

Itifaq Khan, a resident of Sector I-10, said he faced water shortage for over a decade but after 2010 the problem became worse due to which his family members reduced the usage of water, stopped cleaning the house and washing clothes. But even then, the issue could not be resolved.

“In the end, I had to go for deep water boring and spent around Rs100,000 to overcome the problem,” he said.

In most of the sectors, every third or fourth house has installed a boring machine to meet the water requirement but even this method has now stopped working as the underground water level is going down due to insufficient rain.

An official of the CDA requesting not to be identified said the requirement of water in the city was over 120 million gallon per day (MGD), but the capital was getting almost half of it due to which houses built far from tubewells or the supply point did not get water for many days.

“About 30 per cent of water in the CDA supply system goes to waste due to leakages in the pipelines,” he said.

The CDA has put a ban on boring and issued instructions to confiscate the machinery but it is also a fact that the residents are facing an acute scarcity of water and have to depend on this method.

“During the tenure of the PPP, an agreement was signed with a Chinese company to supply 200 million gallon water daily from the Indus River. The project was estimated to cost about 1.2 billion dollars. The layout and designing of the pipeline was finalised but provinces raised objections that water from the river cannot be given to the federal capital. As a result, the project could not be launched,” he said.

The underground water level is going down due to which even the CDA has to sink its tubewells 30 to 35 feet further deep to get water as per its requirement. As long as we will not get water from the Indus, we have to depend on the underground water, he added.

The official said projects of rainwater harvesting were also being initiated in the city by the civic agency.

“Moreover, public sector and private departments are also being encouraged to start rainwater harvesting. The Quaid-i-Azam University has introduced a sewage treatment and waste water reuse system. That kind of projects are being encouraged to meet the water requirement of the city,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention that according to a World Bank report, Pakistan is among 17 countries that may face severe water shortage by the year 2025. The per capita water availability has already dropped dramatically over the last 60 years. In this situation, the reuse of waste water would be a viable option to meet the water shortage. Environmentalist Dr Jawad Chishtie, who has been working on rainwater harvesting for the last 12 years, told Dawn that he and other environmentalists suggested to the government many times to start rainwater harvesting.

“Politicians and bureaucrats who disagree with us usually say that the country has less rain so the project cannot be successful. I believe that this kind of projects can be successful even in Tharparkar.”

He said that Rajendra Singh, a water conservationist in Rajasthan in India, proved many decades ago that rainwater harvesting can be carried out successfully. He used rainwater storage tanks, check dams and other time-tested methods.

“We also contacted the CDA and because of our struggle and cooperation of former CDA chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, rainwater harvesting was introduced in the capital. We also managed to include it in the by-laws of the civic agency making it obligatory for every owner to arrange rain harvesting in their building. However, this by-law is not being implemented in the capital,” he said.

In reply to a question, Dr Chishtie said rainwater harvesting was the only solution to the water scarcity issue.

“Glaciers are melting rapidly so after 20 years the flow of water in the Indus River will start reducing and after about 35 years there will be no water in the river. After that, rainwater harvesting will be the only way to get water,” he said.

CDA spokesman Asim Khichi said the civic agency had been adopting both long and short-term policies to resolve the issue of water.

“Old water supply pipes are being replaced and rainwater harvesting is introduced at several places,” he said.

“As far as the project to get water from the Indus River is concerned, the CDA has taken up the case which will be discussed in the Council of Common Interests and after getting approval the project will be started,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 16th , 2014