The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has finally made the construction of recharge wells for rainwater collecting mandatory for all housing units.
According to the information, the proposal to build recharge wells has been officially approved, and the civic agency will ensure that it is carried out in full.
Official statistics revealed that?the CDA’s Board of Directors debated a proposal in March of this year to require the installation of recharge wells in every housing unit for rainfall gathering in order to replenish groundwater supplies.
The plan was also agreed by the board members, who said that each house should have a rainwater harvesting tank and a small well for recharging the groundwater.
No building plan shall be allowed unless the?water recharging well and tank are included.
Moreover, the water management wing presented this suggestion to the CDA’s building control section, along with revisions to existing by-laws. It also emphasised the importance of recharge wells in replenishing the subsurface water table and addressing the annual depletion rate of at least four feet.
The civic agency’s building of 70 subterranean wells in various areas, including public parks, has contributed to an increase in the subsurface water table. Currently, Islamabad demands 200 million gallons of water per day (mgd), but the CDA only distributes 90 mgd to the city’s people. ?
In accordance with the 2017 census, Islamabad’s population has risen to over 2 million, nearly doubling from 1998.
This has put a significant burden on water resources. A CDA official said, “The proposal for construction of recharge wells in housing units has now become a law and it will help replenish the overstretched groundwater while managing urban flooding in the city.”
It is to be mentioned that the CDA board, led by Chairman Noorul Amin Mengal, held its sixth meeting?in April and approved multiple?policies, including rainwater harvesting in houses, leasing out plots to private schools, and granting sanitation and environment bodies the authority to levy fines on violators.