Ground recharge wells solution to growing water scarcity in capital's households: Experts.

ISLAMABAD -- The experts on Tuesday said groundwater recharge well was a cheaper and efficient technology based on natural solutions to conserve rainwater for household use, revive aquifer and mitigate the risk of urban flooding through most modern technology available at the local level.

The groundwater recharge well technology has been recently implemented at the pilot sites of the federal capital's I-8 Sector Kachnar Park and in front of the office of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) and was being implemented on 100 other sites by the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

The CDA had successfully established 50 recharge wells that replenished 10 million gallons water during this monsoon season. The recharge well was totally opposite and different from pumping well as in the case of the latter the underground water was extracted and in the case of recharge well rainwater was injected into the ground through efficient methodology.

The recharge well comprises of a storm drain, desilting chamber, recharge slab composed of layers of silica sand, gravel, pebbles and a manhole and different inlets.

Chairman PCRWR Dr Muhammad Ashraf told reporter that water crisis was a serious issue of the country and it was soaring in its every urban city.

"The groundwater recharge solutions are the need of the entire country. Especially in the prevailing floods that occured in an unprecedented fashion in Pakistan," he said.

Dr Ashraf said Pakistan was facing environmental degradation as in one season it had dryness and in other there were floods. "We have to increase water storage at every stage. We have to develop large, medium and small dams as per requirement."

"60% agriculture use water is coming from groundwater resources. We will have to either reduce groundwater extraction or increase water table recharge," he added.

Flashfloods, he said was not mitigatable in the federal capital or other mega urban even in pre-encroachment scenario of nullahs.

"Watershed management is imperative for flood and drought management whereas catchment area needed to be enhanced," he said.

The artificial recharge well's purpose was to intercept rainwater near catchment area and inject it into groundwater well. "It will help save water from evaporation, ponding and pollution," Dr Ashraf explained.

He informed that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) was establishing 100 recharge wells and 20 monitoring stations from its own resources in the federal...