It is unfortunate that the much-needed greater plan of supplying clean drinking water to Peshawar has also been sacrificed at the altar of petty politics. The earth experts say that the underground reserves of water are depleting, because human beings are indulging in the overuse of water as compared with their present requirements. Therefore, arrangements will have to be made to bring water from the dams through tankers or via pipelines, whichever method is cheaper.
In the year 2006, the former president Pervez Musharraf (critically ill these days) had approved a plan to supply water to Peshawar from the Warsak Dam. Later, the plan was dropped after complaints of corruption and irregularities. Subsequently, no effort was made to revive the plan or to improve upon it in any way. The residents of Peshawar continue to face the consequences, even after the elapse of 16 long years.
It is pertinent to mention here that Peshawar is a city with a population of more than 47 lakh. At the government level, about 70 percent of this population is being supplied with drinking water through tube-wells. A majority of these tube-wells may go dry in the near future. The present-day town planners of the city do not appear to have any alternative water supply scheme. It may be added here that the federal government had made the greater water supply scheme a part of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), but it now stands shattered, all in tatters.