Water shortage grips cantt areas

RAWALPINDI: The people living in Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) and Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) are facing a severe water shortage crisis, and the gap between demand and supply is growing due to decreasing groundwater level and decreased supply from Khanpur Dam that has left thousands of families struggling with meeting their everyday water requirement.

The water crisis situation is worsening even after imposing a steep hike in water tariff rates by the cantonment board. The annual bill of water supply has been increased to Rs14,400 per year against Rs8,400 per year charged on a five-marla house.

As per officials and local representatives, the supply of water from Khanpur Dam has been reduced to 11MGD against the allocated 19MGD, while the supply of water from tube wells has been reduced because of decreased groundwater level.

This situation has caused a total water shortage of 41.64MGD per day in both cantonments.

Residents in overcrowded areas like Mughalabad and Azizabad have stated that the shortage of water has made life quite difficult for them. They say that while they have not been provided water for the whole month, they have still been charged for a month's supply of water.

According to Malik Munir Ahmed, the former vice-president of RCB, the cantonment should have received 19 MGD of water from Khanpur Dam, but was currently only getting 11 MGD. He also said that much of the water was wasted through seepage into the ground.

In response to this issue, the chief engineer of RCB, Ateequr Rehman Chaudhry, has said that plans were underway to upgrade the water supply system. He stated that the alternate day schedule had been adopted to ensure adequate storage of water so that it could be distributed evenly among the areas.

The problem is the same at the CCB as well, where the water supply system has reached crisis levels in all 10 wards. While there is a demand of 10.12 MGD per day, the available water is 5.92 MGD.