RAWALPIND: Residents of Rawalpindi city and cantonments who had been suffering water shortage for the past week because of a breach in a canal that brings them water from Khanpur Dam can hope their suffering to end on Saturday.
Rawalpindi Cantonment Board Secretary Amanullah announced the good news on Thursday, saying a team organised by the RCB had plugged the 15-foot-wide breach and the disrupted supply of four million gallons per day (MGD) would resume from the dam, which is managed by the Capital Development Authority of Islamabad. The RCB and Wasa, the Water and Sanitation Agency, distribute the Khanpur Dam water in their respective domains. RCB officials told that 50 million gallons of water was going waste daily because of the breach.
The officials said 90 per cent work on the breach repair had been done and the water supply would be resumed on Saturday. They said to save drinking water; the CDA had reduced supply to Rawalpindi city and cantonment. At present, RCB is receiving seven MGD of water from Khanpur Dam instead of nine and Wasa is getting four MGD against its quota of six MGD. Due to the breach, shortage of water has been reported from many areas of the city and cantonment for the last 10 days.
The worst affected areas are: Shamsabad, Gulistan-i-Jinnah, Farooq-i-Azam Road, Arya Mohallah, Dhoke Ratta and Dhoke Khabba in the city and Naseerabad, Chur Chowk, Siham, Allahabad, Westridge, Misrial Road, Tench Bhatta and Gwalmandi in the cantonment.Mohammad Mazhar, of Gulistan-i-Jinnah, told this reporter on Thursday that his locality was getting scant supply of water for the last six days. He complained about indifferent attitude of Wasa towards the problem.
Zeeshan Ahmed, of Dhoke Kala Khan, said he was getting water from a private bowser at Rs900. Mazhar Iqbal, of Gowalmandi, said their daily chores remained incomplete due to unavailability of water. He said they had to hire private tanker at Rs1,000 to meet the water shortage. Yasir Nawaz, of Chur Chowk, said the cantonment authorities provided water for 15 minutes daily. “If this situation has arisen at the start of the summer season what would be the state of affairs in mid-June,” he questioned.
When contacted, Wasa Managing Director Chaudhry Naseer Ahmed said the city areas were facing water shortage due to the breach in the canal from Khanpur Dam. However, he said, power loadshedding was also creating problem for the civic agency to draw water from tubewells. He said Iesco was even suspending electricity to Wasa`s independent feeder from 4am to 10am and 6pm to 10pm.
