ISLAMABAD: The federal capital’s decades-old sewerage system has almost spent its useful life with the city also facing shortage of water, the Senate was told on Friday.

Moreover, the civic agency is short of funds for repair and maintenance of government houses in the capital.

These issues were discussed in the upper house of parliament during question hour on Friday.

In response to a question from Senator Kamran Murtaza, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, in his written reply, said: “Yes, most of the sewerage system in Islamabad was laid at the time of the initial development of sectors almost four to five decades back, hence almost spent its useful life and needs to be replaced.”

He said a survey was conducted in July 2022 and, subsequently, the urgent replaceable portions of the sewerage network were changed.

On basis of a recent survey, urgent plan worth over Rs369 million submitted for approval, says interior minister

The minister said a fresh survey was also carried out in July 2024.

“In the light of the fresh survey, a U-plan (urgent plan) worth Rs369.94 million has been prepared and recently submitted to the competent authority for approval which is still awaited.”

He said after receiving complaints from residents and in case any line is found choked; the same was rectified and cleared with manual rodding etc.

Moreover, periodic cleaning is also carried out on a regular basis.

Maintenance of government houses

In response to another question asked by Senator Kamran Murtaza, the minister acknowledged that work on many houses had been pending due to shortage of funds.

“It is a fact that 147 cases of repair/maintenance of government houses are pending in Sector G-6/2 and 31 cases in Sector F-6/1 due to insufficient funds,” Mr Naqvi said.

He claimed that it was not true that cases of applicants having political or bureaucratic influence were expedited by the CDA.

The minister said the Ministry of Finance allocates Rs332 million each year for the maintenance work of houses.

He said 25pc of the budget was allocated for electrical and mechanical work whereas 10pc was deducted on account of government taxes, water charges, etc.

Further, 10pc of the budget is deducted for the contractor’s profit. After these deductions, an amount of Rs200 million is left for repair/maintenance work.

“Hence, approximately an amount of Rs13 per square feet annually is allocated by the Federal Government for repair/maintenance works which is much lesser and do not cover the maintenance works as these buildings/houses were constructed about fifty years before and require major renovation,” stated the reply.

It is relevant to note that the government deducts 5pc from the salary of the allottees of government houses on account of repair and maintenance.

But despite this deduction, the allottees often run from pillar to post to get the repair work done from CDA.

Meanwhile, in response to a question asked by Senator Fawzia Arshad, the interior minister told the house that Islamabad was facing shortage of water.

“It is a fact that the water demand of Islamabad, (urban areas) is approximately 120 million gallons per day while the available supply is only 80 MGD (maximum). Similar position regarding demand prevails in the rural areas of Islamabad. However, the demand is mostly met through consumer boring in such areas. Presently, the shortfall is managed by supplying water intermittently on alternate day basis in some areas,” the minister said, adding that various measures/initiatives had been taken by the government to bridge the demand-supply gap.

He said a project regarding conduction of water from Indus River/Tarbela Dam for Islamabad and Rawalpindi had been conceived, which can meet the present shortfall as well as the future demand up to 2050.

He said the feasibility study of this project was completed in 2009 but it couldn’t be executed mainly for want of appreciable funding.

In parallel, pre-feasibility studies of various dams have also been initiated like Dotara Carryover Dam upstream of Khanpur Dam, Chiniot Carryover Dam upstream of Simly Dam and Shahdara Dam for increasing water supply capacity of Islamabad.

Furthermore, the issue of stalled Chirah Dam project is also being taken up with the Punjab government.

Earlier, in response to a question by Senator Mohammad Aslam Abro whether the CDA was authorised to impose fines on HTVs on Karnal Sher Khan Shaheed Road (formally IJP Road), Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the CDA was not authorised to collect fines against traffic violations as it was the domain of the police.

He said the CDA had denied this, but he had ordered an inquiry and the house would be informed accordingly.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2025