RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government on Monday approved the replacement of the outdated machinery at the Rawal Dam filtration plant at a cost of Rs229 million.

The filtration plant was established in 1962 and since then the machinery have not been replaced. The Rawal Dam supplies 21 million gallon daily (MGD) water to the garrison city.

The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) had requested the provincial government to provide funds to replace the old machinery.

After discussing the matter with the technical experts, the project was referred to the Punjab Planning Commission which on Monday gave the go-ahead to Wasa to launch the work.

Wasa Managing Director Raja Shaukat Mehmood told Dawn that the funds would be released to the agency to replace the old machinery in three phases. He said work on the project would start next month.

The supply of potable water to the residents of the garrison city is not possible without the replacement of the old and outlived machinery at the filtration plant, he added.

Under the project, four tanks with the capacity of purifying two million gallon water daily would be replaced. He said the water pumps would also be changed.

The agency already has launched another project to repair the main supply line of 44 inch diameter from the Rawal Dam to Saidpur Road worth Rs7 million to plug leakages. The main supply line was also laid in 1962 to supply water to the residents of the city.

The official said the total length of the water supply line was 15 kilometres and its repair was likely to complete by the end of this month. He said after the completion of both the projects, the chances of supplying contaminated water to the consumers would be eliminated.    

“Cracks appeared in the main supply lines in the monsoon but work to repair them started on time. The old and leaked supply lines in streets and main roads will be replaced,” he said.

After the repair of the main supply line, the volume of water being supplied from the dam to the city would increase from 21 MGD to 28 MGD.

At present, the water demand of the city, having a population of about 1.5 million, is 60 MGD. The city relies mainly on Rawal and Khanpur dams in addition to the 363 tubewells. The total extraction from these two sources is 50 MGD (21 MGD from tubewells and 29 MGD from Rawal and Khanpur dams).

The civic agency estimated to generate Rs330 million from the domestic and commercial water consumers and bulk water sale to the railways, Military Engineering Services and other organisations. It also generated Rs10.5 million from new connection fees and supply of water through bouzers.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014