ISLAMABAD: The owners of tube wells are acquiring water for free and selling to residents of the federal capital and Rawalpindi, which is causing its shortage in the twin cities, remarked Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Friday. During the hearing of a suo motu notice over water scarcity, eight owners of tube wells, additional attorney general and officials from the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad were present in the court. One of the alleged tube well owner, Zamrud Khan, told the court that he did not own a tube well but said the entire cantonment was full of tube wells as the area was faced with sever water crisis. He requested the court to issue orders for supply of water through alternate sources before the tube wells are closed down as Cantonment Board and Capital Development Authority were not cooperating with each other over the issue. To this, the chief justice remarked that water shortage was mainly being caused by the tube wells. A representative of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad, who was present in the court, said they would impose taxes on the use of tube wells. When asked how many days the authority would take to levy the tax, the representative sought 15 days. The chief justice sought details on tube wells from the CDA, Cantonment Board and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad. He also ordered reply on the issue from the executive office of the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board and managing director of the Water and Sanitation Authority within 10 days. Water crisis in Capital: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) acting president Naveed Malik has said that many sectors of the federal capital were facing acute water shortage and called upon the government to issue directions to the authorities concerned to take urgent measures to address the issue on priority basis. Addressing a delegation of local traders led by former ICCI president Ejaz Abbasi which visited the ICCI to discuss the problems being faced by the citizens due to rising water crisis in the federal capital, Naveed Malik said that amid scorching heat, it was extremely difficult for the people to live without water. He said daily hundreds of people were registering complaints regarding water shortage but authorities concerned were not taking any solid measures to address the issue. He said that Simly Dam was the main source of water supply in Islamabad and daily 20 to 35 million of liters of water was being withdrawn from the dam to supply water to the federal capital. However, due to lack of rains, water quantity was decreasing day by day in the dam. He said water level in Khanpur Dam was also going down but CDA and MCI have not developed any alternative strategy to ensure water supply to Islamabad. He said the water supply network in Islamabad was outdated and many main water lines were leaking due to which thousands of gallons of water was being wasted on daily basis. He stressed that CDA and MCI should take urgent measures to upgrade water supply network in Islamabad to save water from wastage. Naveed Malik said that water was the basic requirement of the people and life was not possible without it. He said that CDA and MCI should ensure water supply through tankers in those areas that were facing water shortage to mitigate the problems of the citizens. He appealed to the government to issue stern directions to the authorities concerned to improve water supply system in the federal capital so that people could be provided relief on this account. Baser Daud, former president ICCI, Raja Hassan Akhtar, secretary general Traders Welfare Association Blue Area, Khalid Chaudhry, president Farooqia Market, Asher Hafeez, Shiraz Siddiqui, Saif ur Rehman and Saeed Bhatti were part of the delegation. Published in Daily Times, June 9th 2018.