The twin-city of Islamabad and Rawalpindi may face acute water shortage in the time to come, as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has failed in making any progress with regard to the much-awaited Rs 48 billion Ghazi Barotha Water Supply Project (GBWSP).
The high ups of CDA, during acute water shortage, last year promised that projects related to improvement of water supply in Islamabad including GBWSP and up-gradation of decades-old water supply lines will be executed on priority basis, but the civic agency has so far failed in launching the said projects, an official source said.
He said that GBWSP was planned to draw water from River Indus through 60-kilometre long pipeline to meet the needs of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and was conceived several years ago. Under the project, 100 million gallon per day (mgd) was to be drawn from River Indus for Islamabad and Rawalpindi, he said.
The official said the CDA had hired 'MM Pakistan' as a consultant for the feasibility study of the project in 2006. The consultant conducted feasibility study and planned to start work in 2007. According to the plan prepared by the CDA's consultant, the Authority would have to complete it in three phases. Work on the second phase would to start in 2012 and would end in 2020. The third phase would start in 2021 and end in 2030.
He said the existing sources of water for Urban Islamabad are solely dependent on rain and ground water. These sources of water included Simly Dam on River Soan providing 42 MGD water, Khanpur Dam on River Korang 2.4 MGD, Saidpur 0.60 MGD, Noor Pur .5 MGD, Shah Dhara 1.00 MGD, Tube Well 7 MGD, Augmentation scheme 4.01, Khanpur 9.0 MGD and total supplied water is 66.51 MGD and required amount of water is 111.6 MGD. The official said that with development of new sectors total daily water requirements would further increase.