Staff Reporter
Dwellers of other cities may compare and idealize life in the federal capital, but it’s the other way around for a vast majority here. From dawn to dusk, people living in series of F, G, I and some other sectors, rural areas and various colonies have a major problem to cope with and that is water scarcity, which becomes a nightmare in the hot months of summer.
Some describe the worsening issue of water supply as the incompetence of the water directorate, while the other think it never remained a priority on the city managers’ list in the past.
But unfortunately, it is the amalgam of many problems ranging from decades-old water supply infrastructure to lowering groundwater table. Lack of initiative to build more water reservoirs and mismanagement on the part of the officials concerned are major reasons to make this basic necessity of life ordeal.
“I have been living in the federal capital for the last couple of decades, but unfortunately, never heard of replacement of rusty pipelines, laid in the city in the late 60s to provide water to the residential area,” said a retired government employee Mustafa Aziz living in a residential Sector I-10. He said reliance on outdated pipeline infrastructure was beyond his belief as the population in the capital city had been increased manifold, crossing two million figure in the last couple of decades.
Water, he said was the basic need of people and “Wastage from pipeline due to rotten lines was equivalent to the amount of water, produced from Simly dam alone,” he claimed. He said it also led to increase in water-boring trend that eventually lowered the ground water table.
Another citizen from Tarali, a suburban area of Islamabad, said people in his area were forced to avail the facility through water tankers for which they had to pay hefty amount. He said the cost of water boring was too high for a common man as in some areas water level had gone down to over 400 feet.
“And it can cost up to five hundred thousand rupees if you are lucky to find the water,” he regretted.
