Ministry fails to settle Capital-provinces water sharing issue

The Ministry of Inter-provincial Co-ordination has failed in settling the water sharing issue between provinces and Federal Capital, which has haunted the execution of Ghazi Barotha Water Supply Scheme for the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Three provinces, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are not prepared to share water of Indus River with local bodies of Rawalpindi and Islamabad and have raised objections over water sharing, saying that Rawalpindi is part of Punjab and water should be given from Punjab share, sources in Capital Development Authority (CDA) told Business Recorder on Wednesday.
They said that funding for the project is also a major issue, as the CDA is not in a position to fund the project worth Rs 10 billion. The matter of funding was raised with Economic Affairs Division, but the Government has asked the CDA to find some alternative sources for its funding, they added.
So far, the CDA has received letters of interest from French, Chinese and some other foreign companies for funding the project, but the matter is still pending due to water sharing issue between provinces, sources said. Sources said that the government would give go-ahead signal to CDA and Wapda to execute the project when all provinces would issue 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC) for the project. Indus River System Authority (Irsa) had earlier, in principle, approved the project and informed that provision of water to the twin cities would not technically affect water shares of the provinces, they added.
This will be the biggest ever water supply project, of Rs 47 billion Ghazi Barotha Water Supply Project (GBWSP), sources said, adding that in 2006 the CDA had hired a consultant to prepare the feasibility report of the project to provide water from Ghazi Barotha to Rawalpindi and Islamabad through a 60-kilometer long pipeline.
In the first study, the consultant prepared a feasibility report only for the capital and planned to start the project in 2007, but later the higher authorities asked the CDA to include Rawalpindi in the project as both cities are facing water shortage, sources said.
According to the plan prepared by the consultant, the Authority would complete the project in three phases. Work on the second phase will start in 2012 and would complete in 2020, while work on third phase will start in 2021 and compete in 2030, sources added.
Basically, there is no water shortage in the capital, but it is the matter of water management, sources said, adding that water losses in Islamabad are over 50 percent as a result of rusty and damaged pipelines laid 50 years back.
They said that internationally 10 percent water wastage is considered tolerable, but the civic body has failed in capping the 50 to 60 percent water losses in the capital. If these losses are capped there will be no water shortage as at present CDA is supplying over 86 million gallons per day (MGD) in place of actual demand of 120 MGD and if wastage is capped the supply will be sufficient, they added.
The CDA has deviated from its two points of City Development and Provision of Civic Facilities to people, they said, adding that the CDA has indulged in luxury and in spite of facilitating common people it worked for vested interests. They said that construction of Munal Resort, Lake View Park, New 3-lane Avenues was of secondary importance as the first priority should have been the provision of civic facilities. The rusty pipeline should have been twice replaced, they added.
CDA sources said that the Water Supply Directorate carries out production, treatment, transmission and distribution of potable water from ground and surface sources. Water is produced and treated at Simly Filtration Plants, 4 small headworks and 174 tube-wells and is conveyed to the service reservoirs and sumps/intermediate pumping stations located at appropriate places within the city and further distributed to the houses through distribution network. A tanker service, comprising 36 tankers, is also operated, which augments the supply to the consumers as and when required, on nominal charges.