Concerns regarding water plant in Abbottabad addressed

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cities Improvement Project (KPCIP) Project Management Unit has addressed environmental concerns related to the construction of the Chuna Water Treatment Plant in Abbottabad city, a meeting was told on Friday.

In the meeting, elected representatives of national and provincial assemblies agreed to withdraw their objections after their concerns regarding the environmental and social impacts of the project were addressed.

In a meeting, elected representatives from national and provincial assemblies withdrew their objections after their concerns regarding the environmental and social impacts of the project were addressed. They urged Project Director Syed Zafar Ali Shah to commence construction work on the intake point and water supply lines.

The delegation, comprising Member National Assembly Ali Asghar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly members Ali Khan Jadoon, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, Rajab Ali Abbasi, and Iftikhar Ahmad Jadoon, visited the KPCIP office for a briefing.

The KPCIP’s Project Management Unit (PMU) and Project Management Construction and Supervision Consultant (PMCSC) team, led by the project director, briefed the delegation on the socio-economic and environmental aspects of the project. Under the project, stream water will be tapped by constructing an intake point at the Jandarbari locality, which will be supplied through a pipeline to the Chuna Water Treatment Plant. The delegation was assured that the water drawn from the stream would not affect downstream flow, thus maintaining the natural habitat of the area.

“Storage tanks will be constructed as a backup plan, with a capacity to store 16 million gallons of water, enough for 15 to 20 days in case of a reduction in water flow due to reasons like a dry season,” the project director stated.