Planning ahead: ‘15m gallons of additional water for Faisalabad’

Aziz said the water would be supplied under a project initiated with financial assistance from the French government. “The projected cost of the initiative is Rs5 billion… Rs4 billion of it has been granted as soft loan with a re-payment period of 20 years.’ He said the total demand of potable water in Faisalabad was 145 million gallons per day.

“56 million gallons water is provided to Faisalabad through farm tube-wells… 8 million gallons comes from tube-wells installed at Rakh Canal and another 1 million gallons is supplied by the Millat Town water works,” Aziz said.

He said the WASA’s first major project to supply water was undertaken with assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). “This [project] was completed in June 2012 but it was insufficient to cater to the needs of people of Faisalabad.”

“We managed to cover only 40 per cent of the population with 66 million gallons… with the second phase of JICA project we managed to take it up to 88 million gallons per day.” The WASA MD said the remaining 57 million gallons of water would be provided using other resources.

“These projects are underway… the WASA is working on a project to ensure 100 per cent potable drinking water supply to 3 million people in Faisalabad by 2018.” He praised the provincial government for its support. “Faisalabad used to be mostly farm land…but much of the land has now been converted into residential colonies.”Aziz said the canal water allocated for these lands was not being utilised. “We are negotiating with canal authorities to get this water to augment our water resources.”

He said, “Sufficient underground water is available… this water is fit for drinking as its quality meets the standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).”

Aziz said he was optimistic that foreign donor agencies would help the WASA accomplish its “feasible and profitable” projects.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2014.