ISLAMABAD, April 28: With the growing demand for water in both the urban and rural areas of Islamabad, the capital territory administration has proposed to desilt the Rawal Dam to get the additional storage for supply to the water-deficient villages.

Currently, Rawal Dam is under the administrative control of Small Dams Organistaion (SDO), an entity working under the Punjab government, and supplies water to the Rawalpindi city. However, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Amir Ali Ahmed on Saturday told Dawn that they were negotiating with the Punjab government to desilt the dam and get the additional water for meeting the rising needs of the capital city.

He said the ICT administration had prepared a Rs230 million project to initially meet the water demand of the rural areas from the Rawal Dam.  “In the second phase, we can address the water demand of the urban areas through the water reservoir,” he added.

The official said out of the Rs230 million, the desiltation of the  dam would cost only Rs35 million.

The desiltation dam will increase the dam’s capacity to store more water and enable us to draw 100,000 gallons per day of water from the reservoir and supply it to around 1,000 households in areas like Malpur, Korang etc., he added.

Explaining the breakdown of the project cost, the DC said Rs60 million had been reserved for installation of a water treatment plant in the dam and Rs110 million would be spent on laying of high density pipes and electricity work at the site.

He added that around six-foot deep desiltation over six kanals in the dam would help them save a huge quantity of water. He said they had proposed that the desiltation would be done in June and July when water level in the dam decreases.

The DC added that construction of any new dam would cost the federal or provincial government around Rs5 billion to Rs7 billion, “so the desiltation of the dam would be a money-saving project.”

It may be mentioned that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has also requested the federal government to allocate Rs11 billion for replacing the old water network in the city which will help plug around 22mgd of water going waste on a daily basis due to the leakages. Islamabad’s water demand for the urban areas stands at around 150mgd per day, which is managed by the civic agency.

“In 2005, the Punjab government had worked out a feasibility report on Chirah Dam which was to cost around Rs5 billion but since then the cost of land has gone up,” said the deputy commissioner. He said CDA also reserved around Rs300 million for water projects every year.

“These water projects, which are being managed by the Islamabad Development Committee, hardly meet the requirements of a few hundred households but once the Rawal Dam desiltation is done we will be able to supply water to thousands of households daily,” claimed Mr Ahmed.