Watershed Collapse Threatens Twin Cities Water Supply
Concerned citizens have issued a direct appeal to the Prime Minister, highlighting the slow collapse of the watershed that supplies drinking water to Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The catchments of Rawal, Simly, and Khanpur dams, fed by forests stretching from Murree to Patriata, are under severe threat from encroachment, deforestation, and untreated sewage. The urgency is amplified by India's suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, which casts doubt on the future reliability of western rivers. As the security of the shared river system faces direct challenge from across the border, the failure to protect local watersheds—entirely within Pakistan's control—would be a grave oversight.
Historical Precedent: Colonial Watershed Protection
The British administration treated watershed protection as a military necessity. Sir John Simon's 1872 report on the Rawalpindi cholera epidemic documented how contaminated water sickened the garrison cantonment. In 1883, Charles Moore Jessop reinforced this lesson, leading to formal protection of forested springs feeding Murree, Rawalpindi, and the cantonment. The conviction was simple: an army cannot be sustained on contaminated water. The appeal urges the government to revive this conviction for the soldiers and families of GHQ Rawalpindi, PAF Chaklala, and all citizens of the Twin Cities.
Concrete Action Over Rhetoric
The Prime Minister's Office frequently affirms support for the Pakistan military, but sentiment alone does not protect health. The most concrete way to honour that support is to guarantee safe, uncontaminated drinking water for GHQ Rawalpindi and surrounding families. While praise is free, protecting the water supply of those it honours requires tangible action, not just speeches. The watershed feeding the cantonment continues to be encroached upon, deforested, and polluted by untreated sewage.
India's Example: Treating Water as National Security
India faced similar crises in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai and chose to act. Mumbai placed its Tansa and Vaitarna catchment forests under Eco-Sensitive Zone protection. Delhi protected the Asola-Bhatti forest belt that feeds its aquifers. Across the Western Ghats, entire catchments received binding legal protection to secure drinking water for tens of millions. In contrast, Pakistan's catchments above Rawal Dam remain open to encroachment, unregulated construction, and untreated sewage discharge into the Korang River. India treated water as a matter of national security; Pakistan has not yet done the same.
Call for National Protected Area Declaration
The appeal demands that the watershed corridor from Rawal Dam to Murree, along with the full catchments of Simly and Khanpur, be formally declared a National Protected Area. This declaration should be placed on record with UNESCO, the World Bank, the European Union, and the UK High Commission, whose archives document how this watershed was once managed. The Punjab Government's anti-encroachment drive in Murree is acknowledged as necessary, but it must be matched by halting further mega-tourism development—new hotels, large-scale housing, and transport infrastructure—on these forested slopes. Tourism revenue today cannot come at the cost of water security tomorrow; the cost of replacing a destroyed natural catchment always exceeds short-term revenue.
Scrutiny of Murree Glass Train Project
The proposed Murree Glass Train and the push to remake Murree into a mega tourist destination deserve public scrutiny rather than celebration. During a fiscal crisis with punishing debt burden and public sacrifice, financing an elevated tourist railway into an already overcrowded hill station is a showpiece, not infrastructure. It will not solve Murree's water crisis; it will deepen it by bringing more tourists onto slopes that already cannot support the people living there. A government that cannot find money to expand FEWS coverage, modernise FFC's flood-design standards, or fund basic watershed protection should not finance a glass train as a matter of prestige.
Prioritizing Reforestation Over Showpieces
The same money—and far less—would do more lasting good if spent on reforestation of denuded slopes above Rawal, Simly, and Khanpur, and on eviction of illegal housing societies encroaching on the Rawal Dam watershed. One path buys a photograph; the other buys drinking water for two cities for the next fifty years.
Alternative of Lifting Indus Water: Impractical and Costly
The appeal anticipates the objection: if Rawal, Simly, or Khanpur fail, can water be lifted from the Indus instead? It cannot in any practical or fiscally sound sense. The elevation gain required to deliver Indus water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi exceeds 850 feet. Lifting and conveying that volume over that height would require continuous large-scale pumping infrastructure, sustained high energy consumption, and a system whose civil works, energy costs, and redundancy would cost no less than USD 3 billion to build—effectively constructing an entirely new water supply system. The capital cost is only part of the concern; recurring energy and maintenance bills would be substantial and permanent. Such expenditures, routed through agencies like CDA and WASA Rawalpindi, create large, discretionary cash flows historically prone to financial mismanagement. This structural governance risk should weigh against choosing an expensive engineered fallback over protecting a watershed that costs nothing to preserve.
A Rare Decision for Generational Security
The decision before the government is a rare one: a single act of protection that secures the water, health, and security of two cities and the forces headquartered within them for generations. The appeal asks that this be treated as a personal priority by the Prime Minister, with the full technical record—historical, hydrological, and comparative—available to support it.
