ISLAMABAD: The federal capital is left with only one month’s water supply as both Simly and Khanpur dams continue drying up by more than two inches a day, said the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) on Sunday.

“We have water till the second week of July. After that the shortage is likely to worsen. However, we hope sufficient rain will fill the dams,” said Chief Metropolitan Officer Asad Kiani.

In April, the supply from the Simly Dam was likely to be cut further from 24 million gallon per day (mgd) to 19mgd. Mr Kiani said the water level in the dam was shrinking by two inches per day. It had become necessary to save water in order to have sufficient supply in the summer months.

Official says Simly and Khanpur dams are drying up by over two inches a day

However, mounting pressure and rising complaints from the residents forced the MCI to continue supplying 24mgd to the capital.

The approved water supply from Simly Dam is about 36mgd. However, in March the supply from the dam was cut to 24mgd, said Mr Kiani, adding during the last a few days the water shortage had become a serious concern.

Tahir Khan, a resident of Sector I-10, complained that there had been no water supply in the last four days. The supply was restored on Saturday and that too for an hour.

Hameed Butt of I-9 had a similar complaint that the water supply was restored for half an hour after three days.

Mr Kiani said Islamabad’s total demand for water was around 114 million gallons per day. The current supply is between 55mgd and 60 mgd less than the standard 70mgd. To meet the rising demand, an extra 10 to 12 million gallons per day is drawn from Khanpur Dam.

Other sources of water supply are tubewells. But the city managers are also facing problems as nearly 50 out of the over 170 tubewells utilised to supply water to residents are out of order. The tubewells should have been repaired in January and February. Only recently, however, the MCI invited tenders for the repair of the tubewells.

In the last decade or so, with the urban sprawl stretching towards the GT Road in the south and expanding towards the new Islamabad airport, no steps were taken to meet the rising demand for water.

While the Chirah Dam project has been shelved indefinitely, work was said to be underway to lay a pipeline from Ghazi Barotha to meet the rising demand for water in Islamabad as well as Rawalpindi.

According to Mr Kiani, the PC-1 for the pipeline was expected to be ready in a month. After the project is completed, the twin cities are likely to have 200 million gallons water per day for the next 15 years, he added.

However, no major breakthrough has been made by the government to execute the project which would now cost Rs100 billion with an estimated completion time of over three years. The water supply project has been delayed for several years as the provinces were not ready to give their share of water from the Indus to Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Earlier this year, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) decided to request the government to include the Ghazi Barotha water supply project in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

The suggestion was made by Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz.

CDA spokesman Mazhar Hussain said the Ghazi Barotha project was important to meet the future water needs of the twin cities.

“The CDA is exploring all possible options to begin work on the project. However, no major breakthrough has been made so far. The city managers are doing their best to resolve the water shortage issue in Islamabad,” said Mr Hussain.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2017