ISLAMABAD, Sep 27 (Asia Water Wire) – Rizwan Abbasi, 24, has come to treat as routine the nuisance of having to make his way through puddles of wastewater seeping out from punctured pipes when he goes to work everyday.

   “It's a huge leakage and thousands of gallons of water run out on  the road, making it hard for pedestrians like us to walk through the  street,” Rizwan Abbasi said of the punctured pipine near the near Agricultural Development Bank at Zero Point. “I go through this road daily to attend to my shop, but often my shoes and cloths get muddied with wastewater."

   “We have lodged our complaint with Capital Development Authority  (CDA) several times to repair this puncture in pipes, but it fell on deaf ears,” Sanaullah added.

   What Rizwan and Sanaullah experience everyday is far from uncommon, due largely to the poor maintenance of water supply pipelines in Islamabad.

   Almost 60 percent of the water for drinking and household use gets wasted due to leakages, according to a study carried out by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), a local think tank.

   According to the CDA, a governmental agency looking after the supply of water and maintenance of the water network, the average  supply to Islamabad from all resources, including dams and tube  wells, is 112 million gallons per day (MGD). Of these, 42 MGD come  from Simly Dam, the main source of water supply to the city.

   But in fact, the loss of water starts from the time it leaves the dam. Apart from having leaking pipes, the water distribution network  has filtration plants that are poorly maintained. “Those in charge at the plant do not usually have the relevant qualification and experience,” Muhammad Jahangir, project manager at The Network for Consumers Protection, said.

   Water is also lost due to unauthorised water connections in the main conduction line from Simly dam to Islamabad. The CDA also does not do a good job in checking these unauthorised connections, says Jahangir.

   Leakages also occur in the main line distributing water to houses along streets. Corrosion of old pipes and damage done by digging or such work does not help.

   The situation was such that Islamabad experienced serious water problems in the summer. Arshad Abbasi, Advisor on Water and the World Trade Organisation at the SDPI, told AWW that there was no actual shortage of  water in the capital -- but that most of the water was lost due to  leakages. This made the low supply of water much worse than it actually was.

   Jahangir adds that leaked pipes are not only about water, but pose threats to human health as well. “The mixing of dirty water at  the leakage points, due to intermittent supply, causes major water- borne diseases. When the supply stops, these leaking valves act as suction points, “ he said.

   Taslim Khan, deputy director at CDA, concedes that there is an unusually high level of water leakages. At the same time, he adds  that there are other factors that cause water shortages -- such as  less rainfall, low level of underground water, leakages in the main  pipelines and wastage at the consumers’ end.

   To cope with this shortage of water, he said, the CDA is planning  to run pipes from the Tarbela reservoir, 60 kilometres west of  Islamabad, for the development of the new sectors in Islamabad.

   But some water experts are against this. Some, like Arshad Abbasi, says there is no need to bring water in from Tarbela to  Islamabad, since the capital has enough water to cater to the needs of its residents. The problem is poor maintenance of water supply  pipes and the need to plug leakages. “Islamabad has the highest per  capita water in Asia, but in reality consumers receive less water due  to loss of water from source to consumer,” he added. “Most of the  wastage can be stopped if the leakages are plugged."

   Jahangir adds that it would help if the government set up an emergency telephone line so people can inform authorities when they see leaking pipes. (END/IPSAP/AWW/SK/JS/270906)