Rawalpindi:
Punjab Prime Minister Maryam Nawaz has granted approval in the principles of the Rawalpindi Development Plan, prioritizing the improvements to the city’s water and sewerage supply systems. The managing director of the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) has received instructions to immediately prepare the PC-1 for all the proposed schemes.
This directive was issued during a joint meeting on Monday, chaired by the Secretary of Punjab for Urban Development and Public Health Engineering, Noorul Amin Mengal. Officials of the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), WASA, Parks and the Horticulture Authority (PHA) and Public Health Engineering attended the session.
The secretary emphasized the need for rapid preparations of the Monzón and urged the early completion of the viability study to obtain water from the Daducha dam to guarantee a sustainable supply for Rawalpindi. He proposed to build land storage tanks in the parks, following the Lahore model, to store rainwater for horticultural use, emphasizing that “each drop of water must be saved.”
Secretary Housing praised Wasa for exceeding his income recovery objective, raising RS2.6 billion against the assigned RS2.3 billion, and requested an even higher objective in the next fiscal year.
The managing director of Wasa, Muhammad Salem Ashraf, shared that there is already an integral monzón plan, including the accelerated cleaning of 15 drains of the city and Nullah Leh. The training of the personnel and the maintenance of the sewerage line have been completed, and five monzónic camps will be operational, backed by a central control room at the WASA headquarters.
To guarantee an uninterrupted water supply during the summer, 20 new tube wells are installed, and an additional intake of the Rawal and Khanpur dams has been ensured. The ongoing dam projects will soon add 12 mgd of Chahan Dam, 5 mgd by Rawal Dam and 8 mgd of Khanpur Dam. The viability for the Daducha dam, which is expected to provide 35 mgd, conclude in two months.
During the meeting, the CEO of the RDA gave progress updates on important projects, including Ring Road and Nullah Leh schemes, which stood out for their timely and transparent completion. The general director of PHA, Ahmad Hassan Ranjha, also informed the participants in the Embels of Citywide Park.
