RAWALPINDI, Aug 28: Water table in the city has fallen from about 50 feet to more than 210 feet in the last 20 years, and it is feared that underground water resources will not be available to Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) in the near future, official sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

If drilling for underground water continues at the same ratio, it is feared that the local topography will be disturbed to a disastrous level, the sources said.

At present, Wasa obtains more than 60 per cent of the water from 209 tubewells installed in various parts of the city. However, the constant declining of water table will make it impossible for the agency to get more water from the ground through its tubewells in the next few years, they added.

According to official figures, the city is already facing a shortage of 8MGD. Whereas, the non-official sources claim that the shortage is of more than 9MGD.

Wasa needs about 37MGD water for its 0.858 million consumers, while, the agency gets only 29MGD from its three available sources, i.e. Rawal Lake Water Filtration Plant, Khanpur Dam (Sangjani Filtration Plant) and tubewells, they said.

The Wasa officials, the sources said, were in a fix as numerous complaints, regarding acute water shortage or low water pressure, were already being received from various parts of the city on permanent basis.