No funds in budget for ending water crisis

Author: By Muhammad Asad Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: The federal government failed to allocate funds for the Ghazi Barotha water project in budget 2017-18.

The project worth Rs 37 billion was announced by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in 2006 under which the civic agency planned to bring in 200 millions of gallons per day (MGD) of water for the twin cities from the Ghazi Barotha Dam on the Indus River.

The water supply project has faced a delay of many years as the provinces were not ready to give their share of water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi. However, during a meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) last year, all the provinces agreed on the project. The federal government gave the CDA a green light to initiate the project for bringing in water from the Indus River.

Currently, against a demand of 211 MGD, the citizens are only receiving 55 to 65 MGD water. This gap is most likely to increase in the coming days. The rising water scarcity is alarming as the population of capital has been increasing at a rate of over five per cent per year.

In March 2017, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had staged a protest in Sector G-9 against water shortage.

Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) State Minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry had said that a comprehensive plan had been chalked out to put an end to water shortage in the federal capital.

Addressing a joint press conference at the CDA Headquarters with CDA Chairman Shaikh Anser Aziz, the minister had said that the provinces had agreed to give their share of water to Islamabad from Ghazi Brotha (Indus River) and the project would be launched soon.

A well-placed source inside the CDA also confirmed that meetings were held on the subject and initial funding was requested from federal government in the budget 2017-18.

“However, no funds were allocated for this significant water project,” the official said.

Talking to Daily Times, Mayor Shaikh Ansar Aziz said: “We are working on the project, but it is in initial stages. We are hopeful that the federal government will release the required funds for such projects soon.”