- Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat has expressed serious concerns over shortage of water and contaminated supply issue being faced by the people of the twin cities, Islamabad and Rawalpindi and reprimanded poor performance of Capital Development Authority (CDA) for not launching even a single project for addressing the water woos despite the passage of many years.
The committee met with Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood in the chair at Parliament House on Thursday. Senators Kamil Ali Agha, Kalsoom Perveen, Mir Muhammad Yousaf Badini, Osman Saifullah Khan, CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal and other officials attended the meeting. The Capital Development Authority informed the committee that the people residing in the federal capital are facing shortage of 50 million gallons of water per day whereas actual demand stands at 125 million gallons per day.
Senator Kamil Ali Agha said that 40 percent people residing in Islamabad and Rawalpindi are suffering from hepatitis due to shortage of clean drinking water. "The CDA can resolve the water issue if takes it seriously. The civic body has been selling plots worth billions of rupees but it could not launch any project for clean drinking water and overcoming waters shortage," he added.
An official of the CDA told the committee members that the authority is supplying clean dirking water to the sectors and model villages of the federal capital from surface as well as ground water resources. He said that the surface water resources are Simly Dam, Khanpur Dam and four other small water works whereas the ground water is extracted and supplied through tube wells installed at different locations. He said that at present, 75 million gallon water per day (MGD) is being supplied to Islamabad from all the existing resources against the total demand of 125 MGD.
He further said that water to these areas is supplied according to scheduled timing but in some of the areas water is supplied on alternate day's basis due to water shortage. He said that future needs of water, as worked out by the consultants up to the year 2050 for urban as well as rural areas of Islamabad, is about 423 MGD. He said that the pace of development on new water resources is not commensurate with the development in city and its population growth which results in supply-demand gap, adding they are facing a shortfall of over 50 million gallons per day.
"The World Bank (WB) had showed an interest in giving us a loan for Ghazi Barotha water project. We sent a request to the economic affairs division to take up the matter with the WB but so far no progress has been made," he said. Under the Rs 37 billion project, which was announced by the CDA, the civic agency plans to bring 200 million gallon water per day (100 for Rawalpindi and 100 for Islamabad) from Ghazi Barotha dam on the Indus River. However, besides the funding issue, Sindh also opposed the project. The committee asked the CDA authorities to present line of action and a feasible project within a week to overcome water shortage. The members of the committee asked the CDA to take the water issue seriously and present a solid and feasible project. The members of the committee also expressed serious concerns over the performance of extra staff of CDA appointed at the Parliament Lodges.
Kamil Ali Agha said that heavy staff has been pointed on political basis at Parliament Lodges but their performance is zero. He said that there are 29 lift operators in Parliament Lodges but are not available when he visits lodges. The members also complained about sub standard items in the canteen of the Parliament Lodges.
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