ISLAMABAD: The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) on Tuesday decided to reduce the supply of water to the capital city from Simly Dam from 30 to 19 million gallons per day (MGD).

The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Chief Metropolitan Officer Asad Mehboob Kayani.

MCI officials told Dawn the water level in the dam has been falling due to less rain.

“Because of less rainfall, the water level in the dam has fallen to 2,284 feet when water is at its highest in the dam at 2,315ft. This is alarming which is why we imposed a major cut on the supply from 30MGD to 19MGD so there is no shortage of water during the summers,” MCI Director Water Supply Nasir Jamil Butt said.

He added that this will not mean a crisis in the capital as the MCI will also be supplying around 8MGD from Khanpur and over 25MGD from tubewells in addition to 19MGD from Simly.

Decision taken after water level fell to ‘alarming’ levels; supply reduced from 30 to 19 million gallons per day

“We now have 160 functional tubewells so there will be no major shortage of water but there will be some impact,” he said and urged citizens to use water with care.

Simly Dam is the main source of water for residents of Islamabad and a supply of 36MGD had been approved for the city though it was being given 30MGD.

Mr Butt said the decision for imposing a cut on supply from Simly was taken in accordance with set protocol. He said the water level in the dam will increase with a few spells of rain and supply will be increased again.

He explained that Islamabad needed 114MGD. The current supply is between 55MGD and 60MGD. No plans have been made for meeting the increase in demand for water with urban sprawl stretching towards G.T Road and the new Islamabad airport during the last decade or so. The Chirah Dam project has been shelved indefinitely and the city’s managers are looking towards the Ghazi Barotha project for meeting the demand for water in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

When contacted, Mr Kayani said the supply was reduced in order to avoid a crisis in the summers.

“Residents can afford a little shortage in this weather but it will be difficult for us to manage the supply during the summer,” he said.

Mr Kayani said the MCI and CDA have been working on the Ghazi Barotha Water Supply project.

“We finalised the estimate for the project a few days ago at around Rs76 billion,” he said, adding that a revised plan will be submitted soon to the Planning Commission for funding.

“The government can add this to projects in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor,” he said.

After the project is completed, the twin cities are likely to be supplied 200MGD of water for the next 15 years, he added.

However, no major breakthrough has been made by the government for executing the project now worth Rs76 billion with an estimated completion time of over three years.

The project has been delayed for several years as the provinces were not ready to give their share of water from the Indus to the twin cities.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2018