ISLAMABAD: Experts are concerned about Islamabad’s underground water growing critically scarce in the near future as the urban population expands rapidly.

“Water scarcity will fast become urban Islamabad’s biggest issue, especially the way water is being wasted in daily usage. We need a legislation to encourage an efficient use of the precious resource,” said Dr Ghulam Rasul, director general Pakistan Meteorological Department.

He said the rapid development activities in and around the federal capital were depleting the rain-recharged aquifers in the foothills of Margalla Hills.

“All this development relies only on groundwater. The geology of the aquifer is such that groundwater from higher elevation flows towards low lying areas to recharge under Rawalpindi/Rawat and Fatehjang,” Dr Rasul explained.

Though Islamabad has been receiving its average share of rain that recharged the aquifers, it is being consumed faster than ever due the increasing population, he added.

According to an official of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), gone were the days when water could be drawn from 100 feet underground through boring.

“Now residents have to bore as deep as 160 feet and more than 200 feet in some areas to reach the aquifer,” said the official.

The Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) maintained that several factors were going to worsen Islamabad’s water shortage problem.

Pak-EPA Director General Farzana Altaf Shah lamented that unsystematic boring in every house was the number one problem, especially because when extracting water was illegal.

“Municipal by-laws of Islamabad do not allow boring. There is no data how many households have their own boring and extracting water for free. Because it’s free, it is wasted without a worry that waster is a scarce resource.”

She said the concerned government departments must get people to pay for extracting and consuming groundwater as they paid for other civic services such as electricity.

Ms Shah also expressed concerns about the lesser precipitation in the twin cities which was also affecting vegetation in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

“Built-up areas, such as roads and other concrete structures, including housing societies, have increased, shrinking the recharge area in and around Islamabad.”

With the growing urbanisation, and reduction in green areas in the capital, the amount of rainfall in the twin cities would decrease in the future.

Dr Rasul explained that locations such as the Secretariat and Saidpur received heavier rainfall compared to other sectors that had become warmer due to the lesser vegetation.

“Sectors near Golra turn such as G-13 and G-14 and beyond have become warmer and raindrops there evaporated even before they hit the ground. In such circumstances, where aquifer is not being recharged as fast as it is being consumed, we need laws to check the wastage of water,” he said.

Nonetheless, the twin cities are predicted to receive reasonable rainfall in April, at least once every week, starting from Wednesday.

Dr Rasul, however, cautioned farmers to protect their crops by using faster mechanised harvesting techniques instead of relying on longer conventional harvesting and threshing.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2017