Rawal Dam: An Ecological Disaster In Making

Asem Mustafa Awan

This is Rawal Dam and it serves a population of 2.3 million residents of Rawalpindi with clean drinking water as harped, but filthy and contaminated in truth it is.

The filth cluttered at the reservoir sides tells a story that needs a probe at the levels. Rawal Dam comes under the jurisdiction of which ‘company’ funds the facility and who takes money out of the premises. These simple questions, if probed properly, will point out where the problem lies.

Shifting the blame from one office to another will become the norm later, as nobody takes the blame and everybody is blamed for the wrong.

It is a fact that 2.3 million people are left at the mercy of these individuals, who have the entire reservoir under their control. It is a fact that it has been years since any cleaning was done on the facility that provides ‘clean drinking water’ to the residents of Rawalpindi.

Looking into the garbage, it shows the side where all the food stalls are placed. The merchants and the visitors conveniently dispose of the litter in the dam without a thought to the damage it can bring to the population that drinks the water.

There have been many reports about what this reservoir has in store besides contamination; it has become an ecological disaster in the making.

The reservoir hosts a number of fish and it has been a regular feature that every year someone poisons the fish in the lake and goes scot-free. There has been no report as to what happens to the person who kills so many living creatures for his greed or revenge and continues with the killing spree for the next year.

The garbage is one aspect but all the refuse from the top of Margalla Hills, Bani Gala and Bara Kahu ends in the reservoir and yes, the fresh water, clean drinking facility is housed in Islamabad– the beautiful city.

The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad and writes on a wide range of issues.

Photo Credit: Shoail Shahzad