Daily Times

Capital Development Authority (CDA) has constructed 45 rain water rechargeable wells in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) from out of a total of 100 such wells to improve ground water level in the federal capital, Senate told on Friday.

In a written reply to the question of Senator Fauzia Arshad, Minister for Interior Rana Sana Ullah Khan said the construction work on remaining rechargeable wells was continuing right now. The PC-I regarding Rain Water Harvesting for ground water recharge in Islamabad has already been approved by CDA-DWP for construction of 100 recharging wells in different parts of the federal capital. The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) is rendering technical assistance in this Project.

Recently, it has been planned to construct a dam at Shandara in ICT region – subject to outcome of its feasibility study being initiated. Right now, no proposal under consideration of the Government to construct small dams in Islamabad particularly near Margallah Hills due to non-availability of feasible dam sites. In 2005, a study was undertaken by CDA to explore the possibility of constructing 06 small dams in foot hills of Margalla but none of them proved feasibly mainly due to technical reasons.

Meanwhile, according to CDA sources there wells are built at places where rainwater stands for 12 to 14 hours. These rechargeable wells also have a special filtration system that keeps the water clean from pollutants.

The depth of these wells is about 150 to 160 feet, the rainwater gets absorbed into the underground layer, aiding the recharge of the underground water level.

The flow meters and other devices have been installed at the rechargeable wells which help in monitoring the amount of groundwater and the amount of water absorbed into the ground.