Rainwater harvesting: Litter chokes recharge wells

[Muhammad Jahangir]

Rainwater harvesting: Litter chokes recharge wells Jamal Shahid |
Metropolitan > Islamabad | From the Newspaper3 hours ago
ISLAMABAD, March 4: Rainwater harvesting project of the civic
authorities has become a picture of neglect as its recharge wells in
Sector E-7 have been lying broken.

Plastic shopping bags, bottles and even human waste are finding way
into the four to five feet deep recharge wells through the broken
walls. The project was aimed at improving water table in the federal
capital.

The Himalayan Wildlife Foundation (HWL) pointed out that besides the
garbage thrown around, the stream coming out of the hills and carrying
sewage from the International Islamic University hostel behind the
Faisal Mosque also flowed into the wells especially when it rained.

Helga Ahmed, an environmentalist who has assisted the Capital
Development Authority (CDA) in finding solution to water issues, felt
sorry for the neglect the project is facing especially when most of
the rainwater went waste.

Emphasising the need of the recharge wells in Islamabad, Helga Ahmed
said: “Over time the expanse of construction has lessened the recharge
areas in the capital. The grounds have become harder and water
evaporates quickly. And the exotic and alien species of trees that
have shallow roots (that become barriers to seeping water) have done
more harm to the natural environment than any good because plantations
with deeper roots allow water to permeate easily into the earth.”

In her opinion the wells needed maintenance and rainwater should be
directed into them to conserve more than 1,200ml of rain every year
that otherwise quickly gushed from the hills down to sectors in H-8
and beyond into Rawalpindi at a 50 degree gradient.

A CDA official expressed ignorance over the present condition of the
rainwater wells.

However, storm water expert at Pakistan Agriculture Council Dr Shahid
Ahmad asserted that the wells were not viable as waste filled them
sooner or later.

“Islamabad draws more water from the aquifer than it is being
recharged. The CDA does not understand the system of nature but has a
taste for architecture,” said Dr Shahid Ahmad who was a member of
authority’s advisory committee on rainwater harvesting.

He said much simpler options were present in nature for rainwater
harvesting and that the CDA could have built small reservoirs on the
streams running through the city that he described were God-gifted
channels.

“The money should have been utilised to plug all sewage flowing into
the streams, by increasing the green and planting more indigenous
trees and more effort should have gone into making water everybody’s
business by spreading awareness of its usage,” said the expert.

Dr Shahid Ahmad was not surprised that pollution was finding its way
into the recharge wells.

What worried the expert was the contamination of aquifer once waste
reached the bottom where it could stay forever.

SOURCE http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/05/rainwater-harvesting-litter-chokes-recharge-wells.html