RAWALPINDI: Khanpur Dam’s water supply for Rawalpindi city, the cantonment areas and Islamabad will be suspended from Feb 1 to Feb 10 while civic authorities dredge the water channel from the dam to the Sangjani filtration plant.

The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB), Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and Capital Development Authority (CDA) will begin dredging the 19.5 kilometre canal this weekend.

The RCB receives nine million gallons of water daily (MGD) from Khanpur, while Wasa receives 6 MGD and the CDA gets 10 MGD. A total of 25 MGD is supplied to the twin cities.

RCB is supposed to receive 9 million gallon daily (MGD) water fromKhanpurDam, WASA 6 MGD and Capital Development Authority (CDA) is supposed to get 10 MGD water. Total 25 MGD water is supplied to twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

However, the Rawalpindi city and cantonment areas are only receiving 9 MGD against a total allocation of 15 MGD; the RCB receives 5 MGD and Wasa receives 4 MGD due to technical issues with the Sangjani filtration plant.

The water supply from the dam will be suspended entirely in the cantonment areas and partially in the city areas during the dredging.

RCB spokesperson Qaiser Mehmood told Dawn: “We will provide cantonment residents water through water tankers in areas where water is being supplied from Khanpur Dam.”

However, he said, water supplied by tubewells does not meet the requirement, and local public representatives were contacted to raise awareness among residents to use water judiciously in the next two weeks.

Wasa spokesperson Umer Farooq said the agency has made a plan under which it will provide water to eight localities usually supplied by the dam. Water from Rawal Dam will be increased during this time so affected areas can be catered to, he said.

A joint RCB and CDA team on Tuesday also stopped an illegal power plant and ice factory that were involved in water theft from the canal that leads to the Sangjani filtration plant.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2020