RAWALPINDI: The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) is expected to kick-start multiple water schemes costing Rs1.1 billion in the garrison city, under which the agency will lay the water supply system in urban areas previously ignored by the administration.

Kotha Kalan, Morgah, Shakrial and adjoining areas are included in the new project while the most of work will be carried out in the city areas. Many union councils in defunct Potohar Town were handed over to Wasa in 2013 and there was a shortage of water so the government was urged to improve the supply in these areas.Wasa Managing Director Saleem Ashraf told Dawn that the government approved a short-term development programme and in this regard, it asked the civic body to start the tendering process for the water schemes.

He said that new tubewells would be installed in most of the areas and water supply lines would be laid to avert water shortage in the summer. He said construction work would be started next month.

He said that the Wasa would also lay a sewerage system in many parts of the city in the next month, adding that most schemes were provided by local MPAs and funds would arrive by next week.

According to the Wasa managing director, there was a need to build a new dam to overcome the water shortage in the garrison city. At present, Rawalpindi city has 1.5 million residents and their daily water needs are about 68 million gallons per day (mgd).

The city mainly on the Rawal andKhanpur dams in addition to groundwater drawn by 480 tubewells to meet its demands. The total extraction from these sources is 51mgd (35 from tubewells and 16mgd from the dams), leaving behind a deficit of 17mgd that is likely to increase to 34mgd by 2030.

The Wasa official said the supply of water from reservoirs would also reduce reliance on groundwater, adding that most of the water used by residents in the city was extracted through tubewells. He said the water table was going down by every passing day. He said that in the Potohar Town area, there was no underground water so the administration had no other option but to provide them with water from reservoirs.

According to the official, Wasa installed new tubewells along the Expressway a few years ago to provide water to some union councils in Potohar Town. He said building a new dam would save money used to install tubewells every year.