ISLAMABAD: Despite ample pre-monsoon and monsoon rain, the residents of Islamabad are still facing severe water shortage.

CDA usually blames water scarcity on the leakage of water from supply lines and electricity loadshedding; hence it is forced to resort to ‘rationing’. The water problem began in the 90s and there seems to be no end to it in the near future.

An official of CDA water management wing, requesting not to be identified, said E-7 was the only residential sector in CDA’s jurisdiction where this problem did not exist.

In F sectors, the water problem is relatively less serious as well.

“The residents of the G and I series sectors are the main victims of water shortage. In F and G series water is provided from dams. Fortunately, this year Islamabad has so far had good rains, which has raised water level in Simly Dam, but demand for water has kept on increasing with rising population and development work,” he said.

“In I sectors, water is supplied from tubewells, but it is a complicated process. First water is sent to a 16km-away water purification plant at Pona Faqiran and then supplied to I sectors,” the official said.

“In case of power failure, supply from the plant stops and once electricity is restored it takes an hour to build water pressure again. We use express feeder to provide round the clock electricity to tubewells, but last week even that feeder tripped and its repair took 36 hours, due to which residents of I series faced water problem,” he said.

He maintained that in hours of the crisis the residents of I series (I-8, I-9 and I-10) had no other option but to rely on water tankers. They flood CDA’s water complaint centre at I-9 with complaints and the staff at the centre does register their complaints but cannot cope with the situation due to the rush.

The residents cannot get water even after registering their complaints with the CDA, the official at the authority said.

Hasnain Shah, a resident of I-10, while talking to Dawn, said his turn hardly came on the day he lodged his complaint.

“When I inquire, the CDA staff says they have few water tankers to address such a large number of complaints,” he said.

Awais Ahmed a resident of sector G-9, said in his sector, water supply came one or two days in a week, which was not sufficient to fulfill the residents’ demand. “Sometimes water is supplied for only 15 minutes,” he said.

“In some areas, people steal water by breaking supply lines, but I have never heard that the CDA has launched an operation against water theft. Mostly residents of the slums areas are found involved in water stealing after damaging supply lines,” he said.

During the last few years, a large number of citizens have started getting water through private water tankers.

Sabir Abbasi, an official of a private tanker service, told Dawn that private tankers get water from a hydrant in G-5 on Embassy Road.

“Each tanker has the capacity of carrying 10,500 litres. We charge around Rs1,000 for our service. However the charges increase with distance,” he said.

CDA Member Engineering Shahid Sohail while talking to Dawn said because of rains Simly Dam had enough water.

“The dead-level of the dam is 2,233 feet (from sea level) and maximum 2,315 feet water can be stored in the dam. Spillways are opened when the water touches 2,295 feet. The CDA is getting 32 million gallons of water daily (MGD). It is expected that there will be more rains so water level in the dam will touch maximum level,” he said.

Khanpur Dam, which provides water to F and G sectors, is managed by Wapda, while I series get water from tubewells, the CDA official said.

While replying to a question, Shahid Sohail said as per standards of the United States, a person requires 150 gallons of water per day.

“In Islamabad we maintained 100 gallons of water per person per day for a long time, but during the last few years we have changed the standards and now 60 gallon water per day is available per person,” he said.

“If we assume that population of urban area of Islamabad is around one million then 60 MGWD is required for residents. However, the production side requires more than 60 MGWD,” he said.

“There are eight slums, apart from parks, mosques and public places, which require water so CDA has been providing water through rationing,” he said.

While replying to another question, Shahid Sohail said that at the moment 21 CDA water tankers are on road and they have been addressing around 400 complaints every day.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2014