LAHORE, Jan 20: District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood has said the City District Government Lahore is considering reduction in the water-supply hours to check rapid fall in the underground water level. Presiding over a meeting held at the Jinnah Hall here on Friday to discuss the arrangements for the installation of filtration plants in the city district, he said reduction in the water-supply hours had become necessary because the underground water level was falling fast owing to 18-hour pumping daily.

The Water and Sanitation Agency was sinking tubewells from 600 to 700 feet depth owing to decline in the underground water level, he said.

He further said the underground aquifer of the provincial metropolis was threatened by excessive pumping of water, as the brackish water from the adjoining districts was moving towards it and could mix with it that would affect its quality and taste. Reduction in pumping hours, he emphasized, was the only solution to the problem.

The CDGL had already constructed underground tanks in the new houses so that people could store water for use during suspension of its supply following the reduction in pumping hours.

He said one filtration plant would be installed in each of the 150 union councils in the city district during the next four years to provide clean drinking water to the people. Every plant would have a capacity to filter 2,000 gallons of water an hour.

Every union council would provide a 144-square-foot building for its filtration plant and would be responsible for its maintenance, the nazim concluded.