ISLAMABAD: Senior counsel Aitzaz Ahsan on Monday stressed the need for launching a massive campaign to dredge the dried Rawal and Simly dams whose capacity has been reduced by silting.

“Advertisements should be placed immediately in newspapers inviting trolley trucks to line up and help participate in desilting until the monsoon rains arrive,” he suggested before a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar.

On a suo motu, the apex court had taken up a case related to the water scarcity in the federal capital.

The senior counsel also emphasised the need for regulating the system of tankers supplying water when the court was told that due to dismantling of eight private hydrants or tubewells selling water at exorbitant prices water was being fetched from Attock and Fatehjang for onward supply to the citizens.

SC directs attorney general to convene a meeting and come up with proposals for ameliorating water shortage in capital

The court, however, asked Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan to chair a meeting in his office by inviting Aitzaz Ahsan, the chief executive officer of the Municipal Corporation Islamabad (MCI), Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and other officers from the relevant departments to present proposals for ameliorating the water woes of the citizens.

The suggestions, including on how to get rid of the mafia selling water to residents, should be furnished to the court on Wednesday.

EPA Director General Farzana Altaf Shah told the court that she had been visiting watercourses in and around Islamabad and Rawalpindi with a delegation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and found all nullahs filled with garbage and shopping bags.

She also shared pictures with the court showing that a private housing society was dumping its filth into River Soan on a daily basis. She said her department had embarked upon a study to find out how bacteria developed in the garbage were contaminating the water sources.

People are going in hordes to Banigala (the residence of PTI chief Imran Khan) seeking tickets for the general elections but not a single individual has ever raised concerns over the drying out of the Rawal Dam, she lamented.

The official also suggested encouraging the residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi to harvest rainwater during the monsoon season.

The chief justice said he recently visited a number of drains in Karachi and the garbage he witnessed in the drains had the potential of creating a catastrophe by spreading diseases.

An MCI representative told the court that not a single project had been launched in Islamabad to ensure supply of water to the residents since 1970. As a result, all pipelines have become old and rusty. Islamabad is also providing water to Wasa for the citizens of Rawalpindi and an amount of Rs7 billion is still outstanding against the agency of which Rs3.9 billion is to be paid by the cantonment board.

He said not a single penny had been given to the MCI during the last over two years.

“We are paying salaries to our staff by getting financial assistance from the CDA.”

During the proceedings, the chief justice also hinted at calling former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif over alleged misuse of funds and regretted that no government had accorded priority to resolving the water issue.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2018