ISLAMABAD: As the water table in the capital continues to go down at least four feet every year, the Capital Development Authority (CDA), in a bid to replenish groundwater reserves, has planned to make it mandatory for house owners to construct recharge wells to harvest rainwater.

“Proposal [has been] submitted to [CDA’s] building control section for implementation at house level construction of recharge wells for longer and good results to recharge groundwater aquifers,” said the water management deputy director general, Sardar Khan Zimri.

Speaking to Dawn, Mr Zimri said he had submitted his proposal to a committee working on bringing amendments to the existing by-laws that would make it mandatory for all house owners to construct recharge wells to harvest rainwater.

He said these wells would be helpful for recharging the underground water table through rainwater. “Our water recharge wells received a good amount of water after the rain which lashed Islamabad last evening,” he said.

Official says rainwater harvesting alone not solution to ‘imminent’ water scarcity

It is relevant to note here, as per the existing by-laws, the owners of houses are already bound to have water tanks to store rainwater, but these by-laws are not enforced.

“We will ensure implementation of these by-laws for the construction of water tanks and construction of recharge wells…as groundwater is depleting fast at an annual rate of four feet,” the deputy director general added.

According to the CDA official, at least 70 underground wells which have been constructed in various areas, mostly in parks, have helped increase the underground water table in their respective areas.

For the last many years, the CDA has ignored the problem even though Islamabad is a water-scarce city, mainly because of the rapid growth in its population due to urbanisation and subsequent migration of people from other parts of the country.

Since the construction of the Khanpur Dam in the 1990s, no new sources of water have been explored to meet the water needs of the city. At that time, the population of the city was around 600,000 and now it is believed to be around three million.

Though several announcements were made in the past to start projects, such as Chirrah, Shahdara, and Chinyot dams as well as the extension of Khanpur Dam, the CDA and successive governments could not translate the announcements into reality.

Meanwhile, the CDA has been carrying out construction work on five new sectors as well as new apartment schemes. Similarly, private housing societies and private apartment buildings continue to mushroom in Islamabad without any focus on water needs.

An official said the civic body should focus on this important issue as if left unattended, the capital city would be facing scarcity of water in the coming years. At present, Islamabad requires 220mgd water while the CDA is providing only 70mgd, the official said, adding that in light of new housing projects, this need is only going to increase.

“Therefore, this is the time to focus on resolving water issue, as rainwater harvesting through recharge wells is not the solution to this grave problem,” the official said.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2023