Water supply source to twin cities Cherah dam put on hold

The construction of crucial water supply project for Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Cherah Dam on river Soan in the Federal Capital area, has been put on hold after cut in the Federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), sources told Business Recorder here on Friday.
They said that the joint sponsors of the project, the Federal government and the Punjab government, have already spent about Rs 1. 5 billion on the under-construction dam and if the dam is not completed as per schedule, this money would go down the drain.
They recalled that the Federal government and the Punjab had agreed in 2009 to build the dam at a cost of Rs 5.3 billion, 25 kilometers off Islamabad, on river Soan near village Cherah, in five years to meet the growing water needs of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The cost of the project was to be equally borne by the CDA and Punjab government. The dam was to provide 15 million gallons of water per day to be equally shared by both arties.
The project remained on high priority of the two governments as Punjab government allocated Rs 480 million for the project during FY 2009-10. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) also allocated equal amount for the project and started land acquisition for Cherah dam in July-August last year. CDA assured the Punjab government that as soon as the acquisition for the project was completed, the construction work would kick off to provide a long term solution to water scarcity in the two important cities of the country.
Sources said that though the Punjab government has given its second instalment of Rs 480 million for FY 2010-2011, the CDA has refused to contribute its share for the second phase, saying that "the Federal government has declined to provide funds to CDA for the project" ostensibly due to drastic cut in the annual development programme of 2010-2011 to meet its administrative expenses.
Sources added that CDA and the Punjab government were to jointly execute the project in five years with 131 metres maximum height of the dam and storage capacity of 1899 cubic feet water. Under the agreement, Small Dam Organisation was to construct the dam while the CDA would have installed filtration plant for adequate clean drinking water supply to the two cities. The requirement of the Federal Capital is 125 to 130 mgd while it gets only 111 mgd from all available resources including Simly dam, Khanpur, Rawal dam and tube-wells.