THE advent of summer opens the floodgates to thousand of seasonal refugees towards the valley of Quetta. People rush towards Quetta in order to pass summer under pleasant weather.

But the influx of thousands of refugees brings along with it the scarcity of water .The population of Quetta is approximately 3.4 million despite the fact that the city was designed for a few thousand people.

Therefore, groundwater is depleting day by day owing to lack of rainfall and heavy groundwater exploitation.

The major source of potable water for Quetta is groundwater, which is supplied by water tankers at a high price – Rs1,200 per tanker, especially in Sariab. The tanker mafia changes rates at its whims in summer. Moreover, it is alarming that there is no water supply in Quetta except the posh areas of cantonment and Satellite Town.

The water supply in Quetta will not improve until the government starts construction of dams because without building of storage dams it is impossible to provide drinking water to such a huge population.

Mujeeb Mengal

Quetta

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2015

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