RAWALPINDI:Chairman of Rawalpindi Development Authority and Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Rawalpindi Tariq Mehmood Murtaza here on Wednesday formed a committee to contemplate the project to increase the water storage capacity of Rawal Dam.
Managing Director WASA Muhammad Tanveer, Chief Engineer Potohar Irrigation Department Naeem Ashraf, Project Director Small Dams Maher Manzoor, Deputy Managing Director WASA Muhammad Saleem Ashraf, and others participated in the meeting.
It was agreed that solid steps should be taken to increase the capacity of Rawal Dam to meet the increasing water demand of the city.
The participants discussed various options to increase the existing capacity of the dam, including desalination, which would help enhance the water storage capacity of the dam. The project would help provide an additional 50 to 60 million gallons of water per day.
The spokesman informed that a technical committee, consisting of officers from the Irrigation Department and WASA, was formed to prepare the TORs of the project. The committee would submit its report to the WASA chairman within one week and a plan would be submitted to the government for final approval, he added.
On the occasion, the chairman said that considering the future water requirements of Rawalpindi city, the project would be of great importance, adding that the underground water level was reducing and had reached at an alarming level and dependence on the dams had become inevitable.
The project would provide a sufficient quantity of water at a low cost, as WASA already has a system to bring water from Rawal Dam to Rawalpindi city and treat it, the spokesman said.