ISLAMABAD: Trail 5 of the Margalla Hills National Park has become a new tourist spot which is rich with natural beauty and trekking destination for nature lover’s hikers and tourist circles across the country, including the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Groups of young people come to enjoy its green corridors, especially the spring that flows here which keeps the water running for 24 hours which the visitors here enjoy a lot. According to health experts, hiking these trails is a good activity as it not only reduces your mental stress but also maintains your blood sugar levels and provides you with catharsis of bad feelings and positive vibes from nature provides opportunity for absorption.
Trekking on this track gives an opportunity to learn more about the natural environment and flora and to meet unique birds that hover on the tree branches in the forest but like other tourist places in the country, visitors have started throwing garbage here, which CDA should take steps to prevent.
After flowing some distance it takes the form of a small stream so this water can be used by making a small dam. It should be remembered that many areas of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are facing severe water shortage due to the drop in the underground water level and the obstruction of water supply from the nearby dams.
According to the Water and Sanitation Agency, Rawal Dam There has been a reduction in water supply which was insufficient to meet the demand. He said that the city needs about 60 million gallons of water per day but only 45 million gallons of water is supplied to it per day.
One of the main reasons behind this shortfall is power outages that prevented Vasa from turning on 460 tube wells to add additional gallons of water. Besides, sources in the Ministry of Water Resources say that Tarbela Dam, Mangla Dam and Chashma Barrage have reached the dead level, which will further increase the water shortage.
Meanwhile the residents of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board and Chaklala Cantonment Board are the most affected. According to media reports, a resident of Afshan Colony said RCB was supplying water on alternate basis but for the past few months, we are getting half the quantity of water every fourth to fifth day.
The resident said that the local water supply company has stopped water supply in their area and they are depending on water tankers which are very expensive. Apart from cantt areas, satellite ton, Sadiqabad, Khayaban Sirsyed, Fuji Colony , Naseerabad, Shukrial, Khanna, Ghori Tan, Gulzar Quaid, Airport Housing Society, Gullries I and II, Dhok Chowdhury, Dhok munshi Gharibabad and Jhanda Chichi are facing acute shortage of water.
Residents of these areas have demanded the government to take effective measures to solve the problem of water shortage permanently. It is the primary responsibility of the elected government. For this purpose, if a small dam is constructed on the spring flowing along Islamabad Trail 5, then it will help to raise the water level on the one hand, and on the other hand, it will also increase the beauty of this track.
The hiking enthusiasts coming here will get to see more beauty. Therefore, it is important that the Capital Development Authority can build a dam here by doing a survey and investing a small amount of capital, which the higher authorities need to think about.
It is hoped that the members of the Assembly and Senate elected from Islamabad will also pay full attention to this important issue. Thus this problem has been going on for the past several decades but now it has increased considerably and people here are longing for water. This major problem can be solved by constructing small dams at many other places like Trail 5.
