RAWALPINDI: Chahan Dam is almost complete but no work has been started to supply six million gallon daily (MGD) water from the reservoir to seven union councils of Rawalpindi due to insufficient funds.

Due to the delay, the project cost has increased from Rs5.3 billion to Rs6.7 billion.

The Punjab government approved the project worth Rs5.3 billion to bring six MGD water fromChahan Damin Dec 2018. The damnear Chakri is being constructed on River Sill Kus. It is located 22 km from the garrison city.

A senior official of Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) told Dawn that the provincial government had released Rs200 million in the last fiscal year and Rs250 million in the current fiscal year which was insufficient to start the work. He said 150 kanals would be acquired and there was a need of Rs650 million to acquire the land. He said land acquisition was likely to start in the next fiscal year.

He said the Small Dam Organisation had started construction of the spillway and after filling water in the dam construction of the intake chambers would create problems.

According to the plan, an intake chamber at Chahan, a filtration plant at Chakri and a pumping station at Ranyal would be constructed. The official said 80 kanals will be required for the filtration plant and 35 kanals each at Ranyal and Chakara.

The union councils which will be provided water from the new dam are: Dhamial, Chakra, Girja, Chak Jalaldin 1 and 2, Dhama Syedan, Kilial and Lakhan.

According to official figures, at present the water demand of the city having a population of about 1.5 million is 50 MGD. The city relies mainly on Rawal and Khanpurdams in addition to groundwater drawn from 420 tubewells. The total extraction from these sources is 37 MGD (21 from tubewells and 16 MGD from thedams).

When contacted, Wasa spokesman Umer Farooq said the agency had prepared the project to overcome water shortage in the union councils of the defunct Potohar Town.

He said as soon as funds were received from the government, work on the project would be started. He said formal request for the release of funds had already been sent to the government.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2020