RAWALPINDI: Punjab government has asked the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) to prepare PC-I for the establishment of a sewerage treatment plant (STP) in Rawalpindi under the next annual development programme (ADP).

The government also directed Wasa to submit the ADP by February 15.

Under a new plan, Rawalpindi will get one sewerage treatment plant, Lahore six, Faisalabad three and Gujranwala and Multan two each.

A senior official of the Planning Department said Rawalpindi had enough land for the establishment of a STP at Adiala Road.

He said Rawalpindi would have to lay a trunk sewer from Moti Mahal Cinema to Adiala Road to bring sewage of Leh Nullah to the STP and release the treated water for irrigation purposes in the adjoining areas.

An official of the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) said the STP had been planned in 2006 under the Rawalpindi Environmental Improvement Project funded by the Asian Development Bank but the work was limited to procurement of land.

Land for the proposed sewerage treatment plant has been lying vacant and the RDA wanted to construct a housing scheme there.

He said after the start of work on the STP, Leh Nullah reroute project would also be included in the ADP.

He said the federal government had decided to change the route of Leh Nullah to avoid floods in the low-lying areas of Rawalpindi. He said the administration of Islamabad would also be asked not to discharge sewage of the capital city into Leh Nullah.

Under the plan, a new route of the nullah will be made which will not pass from thickly-populated residential areas of Rawalpindi.

“The government will provide Rs16 billion for the project. The funds will be released in three installments in three years. Every year, Rs5 billion will be released,” he said.

He said on the directives of the federal government, the Punjab government was working on a project to relocate the Leh Nullah and submit a PC-1 for the next ADP.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2018