CHAKWAL: A mega project for Chakwal city’s water supply that has been stalled because the Planning and Development Board has yet to approve the revised cost estimate submitted to it on March 14 is unlikely to be revived before the Punjab government completes its term.

Due to the indifference of the government, the project – which was to be completed by December this year – is unlikely to be finished by December 2020.

Among the promises he made during a public meeting on a hot day in May 2013, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif promised that, if elected, he would fix Chakwal city’s problem of drinking water.

Although his party won all six seats in the district, the promise of drinking water for residents of Chakwal city has gone unfulfilled.

Due to the indifference of the government, the project is unlikely to be finished by December 2020.

According to documents obtained by Dawn the Urban Water Supply Scheme Chakwal project was given the chief minister’s go-ahead at the request of MNA Iffat Liaquat on Sept 21, 2013.

The project was administratively approved by the Punjab government on March 3, 2014, and the detailed cost estimate was technically sanctioned by the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department’s chief engineer (north) on April 16, 2014.

Work on the project commenced that May, and was supposed to be completed by this December at a cost of Rs547.6 million.

The project was to fetch two cusecs of water from Khai Dam and 4 cusecs from 16 tubewells, but residents of Bhoun, Khai and Shamsabad resisted the installation of the tubewells on the grounds that they would cause a water shortage in their area.

The residents petitioned the Lahore High Court (LHC), which directed the concerned authorities to amend the project, after which the PHE decided to bring in 4 cusecs of water from Dharabi Dam instead.

However, shifting to Dharabi Dam increased the cost of the project from Rs547.6m to approximately Rs1.02 billion.

“As the revised cost estimate lingered on in the files of Planning and Development Board, it failed to attract the attention of contractors when its tenders were published in the national dailies, as the rates of different material used in the project were increased,” said an official.

When contractors did not show interest, the PHA revised the cost estimate again and submitted it to the board on March 14 this year. It now stands at approximately Rs1.1bn.

Only approximately Rs348m have been released for this project so far, and 33pc of the work has been completed. The PHE managed to provide two cusecs of water from Khai Dam in January this year.

The project has been designed to cater to the need for potable water in Chakwal city until 2034.

According to the documents, the project area consists of 4,344 acres in Chakwal city which require 2.7 million gallons of water per day (MGD) while the present source capacity is 1.6MGD, based on Mial Spring, Khokher Zer Dam with tubewells and Kot Raja Dam.

The current shortfall of 1.3MGD will increase to 2.5MGD by 2024 and 4.3MGD by 2034.

“This project is crucial for the city because if it continues to linger on, the problem of drinking water for the residents of Chakwal will turn into a nightmare in coming years,” an official warned.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2018