PESHAWAR, July 7: Surveys conducted by various government and private organizations forecast acute shortage of drinking water in the Karak district in the years to come, sources in the Works and Services Department, Karak, said.

As the natural water resources in the district are scarce, the provincial Irrigation Depart-ment constructed a small reservoir, Zaibi Dam, in order to minimize dependency on ground water.

The Zaibi Dam project, completed at a cost of Rs61.120 million in October 1997, was the first pilot project of the defunct Public Health Engineering Department (PHED).

The dam was constructed on the Zaibi Algad, some 22km from district headquarters Karak. The project was executed under the “Rehabilitation programme for areas adversely affected by the Afghan refugees (implementation and extension of water supply scheme) Karak district”.

Designed for an assessed inflow of 700,000 gallon water per day, the dam is meant to arrest the surface run-off water along with the perennial flow of around 0.7 cusec water from the Zaibi springs.

The Zaibi Dam was built to provide drinking water to the Karak town, besides offering irrigation facilities for 33 acres.

After the completion of the dam, the defunct PHED engaged consultants for monitoring the functioning of hydraulic system at the dam and preparation of PC-II/project proposal. During its study, considerable fluctuation in the rate of inflow was recorded and accordingly a discharge of 200,000 gallons per day has been estimated.

Executive Engineer of the Works and Services Department, Karak, Rehmat Ali said another half a billion rupees were needed to set up a treatment plant at the site.

He said in view of the drastic declining tendency of inflow into the reservoir, the consultants forwarded three design options to the district government.

The first proposal, estimated to cost Rs38.421 million, is based on drinking water supply service to the Karak town municipal area alone. This carries the risk of no or little quantity of water to the population during certain period of the year, the official said.

The second proposal, estimated to cost Rs18.176 million, consists of laying 9km-long supply line to take water from the dam to the treatment plant down the ridge at the northern side of the Indus Highway.

The third proposal, which is to cost Rs14.135 million, contains further reduction of the gravity line to about 4km length and locating the water works in the Jandhri area.