‘Contaminated water for sale’ as private tankers exploit ‘lucrative’ market in Rawalpindi

l Residents say a tanker costs Rs3,000 and water delivered is unfit for drinking, cooking
l Wasa promises to regularise tankers, says body formed to fix rates

RAWALPINDI: As groundwater levels deplete in Rawalpindi at a rapid pace due to over-exploitation, residents in most localities are left with no option but to rely on water tankers, which are taking advantage of the situation and deliver “contaminated water” to citizens in the absence of an effective regulatory mechanism.

Over the past decade, the groundwater table depleted from 550 feet to 700 feet. At present, the daily requirement of Rawalpindi is 71 million gallons of water daily (MGD), but the authorities are only able to provide 54 MGD. One of the reasons behind the receding water table is that the government has failed to construct new dams to meet the water requirement in the garrison city.

The shortage of water has created a lucrative market for private tankers – which are minting money by taking advantage of people, without having to provide potable, or even clean, water.

Muhammad Khurram, a resident of Nayyar Colony, Bostan Khan Road, said: “We are purchasing water from private tankers after every second day which puts an extra burden on our monthly budget, especially when the government has failed to rein in inflation.”

He complained that the elected representatives of the area have left them at the mercy of private tankers even though at the time of elections, they had promised to solve these issues, particularly the one about the water shortage.

Ahmed Malik, a resident of Misrial Road, said there were tube wells in the area, but the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) had failed to provide water through these tube wells – only selected areas are being served. “We are buying water through private tankers at the rate of Rs3,000, but the quality of water is not good. For drinking and cooking purposes, we rely on water filtration plants [installed by the local authorities],” he said.

Nisar Ahmed, a resident of Faisal Colony, said that the private tankers have also increased the rates claiming that they are filling their tanks from outside the city.

Sewage water on sale

Even though there are tube wells installed on G.T. Road along Soan River, Expressway, and Adiala Road, the private water suppliers were purportedly filling their tankers from Soan River or Korang Nullah, which is contaminated with sewage discharged by the Lai nullah and private housing schemes in the area.

As per the law, private housing societies were responsible for the supply of water in their respective areas and to discharge wastewater into Soan River and Korang Nullah after sewage treatment. But, seemingly, they continue to ignore these guidelines and discharge the sewage in these streams without treatment.

A senior official of the district administration told Dawn that the district administration has completed the survey of the “illegal hydrants” in the area under its administrative control and found more than 89 hydrants in the district.

However, these private hydrants did not get permission from any authority to sell water. The private water tankers are extracting water from the ground and making money by selling it.

Talking to Dawn, Wasa Managing Director Muhammad Tanveer said that the WASA has completed the survey of the area and found 59 illegal hydrants in the city which the authority would regularise. He said that the district administration formed a committee to fix the rates for water tankers and added Wasa would play the role of monitor and regulator in this regard. He said that the agency would ensure the quality of clean drinking water to the citizens through these hydrants. He said that under the law, the supply of dirty water was banned in the province, adding that hydrants would be installed with the permission of Wasa which would conduct tests before allowing private tankers to supply it to citizens.

Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) member Raja Irfan Imtiaz told Dawn that cantonment areas were facing an acute water shortage. “We are getting water from Khanpur Dam and groundwater in many areas of the cantonment is not available,” he said, calling it insufficient.

He said that Rawalpindi Cantonment Board was providing 2 MGD to the CCB through Khanpur Dam whereas more than 60 per cent of the cantonment was getting water from private tankers and there was no check and balance in this regard.

“An integrated approach may be adopted to resolve the issue of water supply issue. In this regard, a feasibility study to augment water supply for twin cities from River Indus has already been done and the project was principally approved by the Council of Common Interest (CCI),” he said.

This is a three-phase project at a cost of Rs75 billion. After its completion, 600MGD water will be available. In the first phase, 200MGD water will be supplied to twin cities out of which 100 MGD would cater to Islamabad’s needs and 50MGD each for Pindi city and its cantonment areas, he said.

Adiala face shortage

Last year, the Adiala jail administration sought the help of the district administration to remove illegal hydrants in and around the central jail.

“Because of the water shortage, the jail administration tried to install tube wells but the water table receded in the area due to the presence of illegal hydrants in Dagaal and Gorakhpur areas from where private water tankers sold water to adjacent areas… these hydrants should be closed otherwise, the jail inmates will face acute water shortage in the coming days,” the letter had said.

The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench also took notice of the issue and after this, the district administration formed a nine-member committee led by the deputy commissioner to collect data about the illegal hydrants and to ensure the supply of clean water at reasonable rates to citizens. However, there has been no notification as of yet to implement operating measures to regularise illegal hydrants and private water tankers to check the quality of water being provided to residents.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2023