RAWALPINDI, May 23: The water supply from Khanpur Dam to twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad was suspended on Wednesday after Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (Iesco) disconnected power to Sangjani Filtration Plant over non-payment of Rs69 million dues by the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
As a result, the city could not receive water on Wednesday, and the civic bodies feared that the situation would go from bad to worse on Thursday if the water supply was not restored immediately.
Rawalpindi city receives 17 million gallon daily (MGD) water from the dam and Islamabad 10 MGD.
As water in the dam is receding, the CDA, which looked after the affairs of Khanpur Dam Filtration Plant at Sangjani, has already curtailed supply to Rawalpindi from 17 MGD to 10 MGD and for Islamabad from 10 MGD to six MGD last week. The CDA is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the filtration plant and collects money from RCB and Wasa to pay its electricity and other bills.
“We disconnected the power to the filtration plant at Sangjani as the CDA, despite several notices was not clearing Rs69 million dues,” said Iesco spokesman while talking to Dawn.
He said that the CDA had deposited Rs13.5 million, which were not enough to restore the power as the consumer had to clear at least 50 per cent dues.
When contacted, Said Badshah, the CDA deputy director at Sangjani Filtration Plant said: “It is unfair that the Iesco has disconnected the power of the plant which will ultimately directly hit the residents.”
He said that the CDA had deposited Rs14 million immediately after the disconnection and requested the distribution company to restore power but to no avail.
“The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) had not paid its dues amounting to Rs180 million to the CDA,” he said and added Wasa had cleared all its dues.
He said the RCB had paid only Rs10 million and the outstanding amount from 1999 to 2008 was still pending.
The RCB Cantonment Executive Officer Rana Manzoor Ahmed Khan told Dawn that the civic body had provided Rs10 million to the CDA on Wednesday.
As the RCB have to collect the money from Military Engineering Services (MES) and Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) it would take some time to clear the outstanding dues, he said.
To cope with the situation, he said that the RCB had requested Wasa to provide water to cantonment areas from Rawal Dam. He said the RCB had also sought four water tankers from Wasa on daily basis.
CDA officials at water supply department said the CDA had arranged water supply from Rawal Dam for supply to the affected areas of G-10, G-11, F-10 and F-11. They said the Iesco’s dues were not a big amount. Before cutting the electricity supply, Iesco should have issued a notice to the CDA.
