RAWALPINDI: An approximately three to four feet breach in the left bank canal of Khanpur Dam Wednesday morning may lead to water rationing in cantonment and city areas in the coming days.

The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) has written to the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) to start joint efforts to repair the breach.

The letter stated that since a huge quantity of raw water is being wasted due to the breach in the left bank canal, the water treatment plant in Sangjani is not receiving a sufficient amount of water.

It said that the formation concerned may be directed to depute their staff to repair the left bank canal at the earliest.

The senior RCB official told Dawn that the MCI had sought the assistance of technical staff from the RCB and Wasa, who had been sent to the site to repair the breach.

He said breach occurred in the main 19.6 kilometre water canal from Khanpur Dam to Sangjani.

Khanpur Dam is the main source of drinking water for the twin cities. It currently supplies 14.5 million gallons of water per day to Islamabad and eight and nine million gallons per day to the city and cantonment areas respectively.

When contacted, an RCB spokesperson said that a portion of the left bank canal of Khanpur Dam has been damaged and teams were working on a war footing to repair it.

“There is no shortage of water yet but it will occur in the cantonment areas of Rawalpindi and Chaklala if the repair work is not completed in a day or two. Sangjani Water Treatment Plant has three to four days water reserves,” he said.

Wasa has also chalked out a plan to provide water to nine localities in the city where water is being supplied through Khanpur Dam. The affected localities are Dhoke Hassu, Dhoke Matkal, Ratta Amral, Pirwadhai, Pindora, Double Road Shamsabad, Mullpur and Sadiqabad.

Wasa spokesperson Umer Farooq said the agency would try its best to provide water to the residents of these localities by other means if any rationing started from the treatment plant.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2020