ISLAMABAD: A private citizen has succeeded in moving the Supreme Court to take up his petition for start of work on the Daducha Dam project which has been hanging fire for almost 13 years.

Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja ordered the Registrar Office last Thursday to admit the petition of retired Lt-Col Mohammad Tariq Kamal, a resident of Rawalpindi, which the office had refused to entertain in February, saying the petitioner had no locus standi to raise the matter as a fundamental right.

Justice Khawaja has asked the office to fix the petition for hearing before a bench of the Supreme Court, according to Mr Kamal.

“Access to drinking water is essential for the survival of human beings and societies,” he told Dawn, expressing the hope that the Supreme Court will order the Punjab government to accord priority to the construction of the Daducha Dam on the Ling river and make the project part of its public sector development programme (PSDP) for the new financial year 2015-16 beginning in July.

His petition arose from the fear that the citizens of Rawalpindi will be facing a water crisis as the water table of the city was fast depleting and supply of clean drinking water from the existing sources will not suffice in the near future.

Retired Lt-Col Kamal has requested the Supreme Court to order immediate halt to what he called “unauthorised infrastructure development” by certain private land developers in the reservoir area of the dam because it will create a third party interest in the matter, leading to multiplicity of proceedings.

Daducha Dam project has been lingering on for almost 13 years

He also wants the Supreme Court to direct the National Accountability Bureau to hold “a full fledge inquiry” into the causes of inordinate delay in starting the construction of the Daducha dam and fix responsibility upon the state officials and beneficiaries for the same.

Water supplies from the Rawal Dam and the Khanpur Dam to Rawalpindi’s burgeoning population have already gone down from the two major but aging water sources of the city. While the Rawal Dam, built in 1965, completes its planned life of 50 years this year, supply from the Khanpur Dam built in 1983 has reduced by 30 per cent.

Indeed, the need for new sources of water was visualised decades ago and Daducha dam on the Ling river and another on the Soan river were evaluated as new water reservoirs. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) subsequently recommended the construction of Daducha project first.

By mid November 2002, the feasibility report of the project was prepared by the engineering, the irrigation and power departments of the Punjab government at a substantial cost.

But the petitioner claims that vested interests discriminated against the citizens of Rawalpindi by hampering the implementation of the project. According to him the construction of Daducha dam remains in doldrums because of machinations of the land mafia.

“Even nowadays, echoes of preparation of topographical survey can be heard on the social media,” retired Lt-Col Kamal said.

“It is beyond comprehension why the wheel was being re-invented time and again.”

The petitioner accused government’s officials of lacking the will to construct the dam, deploring that the commissioner Rawalpindi, the overall boss of the entire administration, failed to assert his authority and undertake the construction of the dam.

Not only that, the commissioner even did not stop the development of infrastructures at the dam site, nor the sale/purchase of land reserved for the dam under section 4 of Land Acquisition Act 1894, the petitioner alleged.

Neither did the Small Dams Division of the Islamabad administration take any measures for inhibiting the ongoing earth moving nor other infrastructure development activities over the landsite reserved for the dam.

Retired Lt-Col Kamal recalled that in May 17, 2010 the Supreme Court had taken up the issue of depletion of water resources for the residents of Rawalpindi on his application. As a result of the human right case the Irrigation Department of the Punjab government had also sought Expression of Interest for conducting feasibility study of the dam project. Why authorities are seeking fresh feasibility in the presence of the 12-year-old PC-1 and PC-2 for the Daducha dam, the petitioner has asked.

His petition has also reminded that secretary of the irrigation department of Punjab had assured the Supreme Court in the human rights case that the dam would be constructed but the concerned officials are now behaving differently.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play