Cleaning Rawal Dam’s supplying streams is a long way off

Cleaning Rawal Dam’s supplying streams is a long way off. The long-awaited project to clean up Rawal Dam, which is the main source of water for the garrison city, is still in limbo because the Planning Commission and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) haven’t decided what to do since the bid validity period ended last year.

Under the project, the CDA was supposed to put three sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the catchment area of the dam to stop the flow of dirty water into the reservoir. The project, which was supposed to cost Rs3.9 billion, could not go forward for technical reasons.

The CDA had asked for bids, which were opened in July of last year. However, the contract could not be given out in the time allowed. So, the bid’s time limit ran out, and nothing was done to start the project after that.

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Plants were to be built near Banigala, in lower Shahdara, and in Bari Imam. Without these plants, sewage from unplanned areas in the catchment areas would flow into Rawal Dam without being cleaned.

When this project starts, it will take 14 months to finish and will treat 9.6 million gallons of untreated water every day.

Officials from the CDA said that the PC-I was made at the request of the Planning Commission as an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) mode project. This meant that the design and engineering of the project would be done by an EPC contractor.

After the bid was won, they said that the civic body was supposed to get the Planning Commission’s approval for the revised PC-I. The Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), on the other hand, said that the project hadn’t had an environmental impact assessment (EIA). In the meantime, the time for the bid to be valid ended.

Sources in the CDA say that the civic agency asked the Planning Commission, through the Interior Ministry, for advice on how to move forward with the project a couple of months ago.

In its letter to the Planning Commission, the CDA said that the EIA would not be done if the project was done through the EPC mode. Under the EPC mode, the contractor was supposed to make the project’s design, and the EIA could not be done without the design.

In its second proposal, the CDA asked the Planning Commission if it could do the project without using the EPC mode. This was so that the civic body could do an environmental impact assessment before the contract was given.

“Both the Planning Commission and the CDA are talking to each other about the issue, and once the civic group gives its presentation, the Planning Commission will make a decision and let everyone know. A CDA officer said, “We want to do this project without the EPC mode. Let’s see what the commission says.”

He said that the CDA would start the bidding process again once the Planning Commission gave its approval.

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