Tackling water shortage in Quetta valley
Tackling water shortage in Quetta valley
Editorial
Editorial

The Quetta valley is facing acute shortage of water for the past many decades and the successive Governments had failed to solve this problem to the satisfaction of the people. Water is needed for commercial, domestic and agriculture use in the Valley. The existing supply falls short to meet the ever growing demand for fresh water.

The Quetta valley is facing acute shortage of water for the past many decades and the successive Governments had failed to solve this problem to the satisfaction of the people. Water is needed for commercial, domestic and agriculture use in the Valley. The existing supply falls short to meet the ever growing demand for fresh water.

The Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan Aliyani has approved rupees 15 million for non-functional water treatment plants in Quetta expressing indignation over closed water treatment plants.

“Quetta city has been witnessing severe water shortage but we are busy in wasting clean drinking water in construction work, car servicing and other un-necessary usage.” Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan said while visiting water treatment plant in Quetta’s Spini road on Saturday.

Jam Kamal Khan Aliyani has directed the PHE department to functionalize all closed water treatment plants in Quetta city adding the department must prepare a summary regarding functionalization of plants through Public Private Partnership or hand over them to Wasa.

Taking notice of expensive machinery for plants being kept under open sky Chief Minister admonished the WASA department and called for the report over purchased machinery for the installation of water plants in Quetta.

All the civic agencies providing basic services and facilities to the people in this valley lacked competent officials, engineers and planners to tackle the problems of this capital city of Quetta which happened to be the seat of the Provincial Government also.

The performance of civic agencies in Quetta is zero by all standards and they failed to perform their duties to extend civic services to the people for decades. This was the main reason of water shortage or other civic problems, including drainage, overflowing gutters, garbage removal from the main population centre.

The concept of waste water storage, management and treatment should be used so that bulk water should be used for agriculture, particularly producing fruits and vegetables or irrigating score of Quetta orchards in the valley. The Government can store enough waste water for re-cycling for planting trees and making Quetta green and environment friendly.

Earlier we have suggested in these columns that the Government should first recycle used water after treatment and use it for growing vegetables for Quetta and irrigating the vast orchards in Quetta valley ensuring quality and safe primary products and protecting the orchards from all sorts of virus and infections.

The Government should store water in different areas of Quetta city and its surrounding and use it for block forestation that can change the face of Quetta. We will suggest that the Chief Minister himself should head the project to protect Quetta from complete destruction by making available used water through recycling.

The scheme is successful in all the major cities and township of Iran where used water is available for irrigating fields, orchards, block forestation inside the cities and towns besides using water for washing, cleaning and mainly car washing in millions and not in thousands. The single project to recycle used water can change the fate of Quetta Valley and resolve half of the problem of water shortage in this Baloch Capital.