ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said that the Punjab government’s water conservation policies have proved fruitful as for the first time since 1980, Lahore’s groundwater has stopped falling.

Making the announcement from his Twitter handle, Imran Khan said owing to water conservation policies, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar-led Punjab government for the first time since 1980 stopped the fall of Lahore’s underground water.

He shared that it was achieved through effective water recycling policies, new aquifer charges, underground rain storage, timed well pumping, and other targeted actions.

In July last year, the Punjab government has decided to expand its underground rainwater storage project to other cities of the province after Lahore.

CM Usman Buzdar said that rainwater storage projects will be started in big cities of Punjab and the reserves will be used in horticulture.

The chief minister said an underground tank with a capacity storage of 1.4 million gallons of water has been made in Lahore. A new sewerage line will be built from Latex Colony to Gulshan-i-Ravi.

It is modelled after reservoirs in Japan and the United States, which offer an effective use of water resources and disaster prevention, especially in metropolitan areas.