Pakistan: Delayed drainage, open manholes compound Lahore’s monsoon woes

Lahore [Pakistan], July 11 (ANI): Even as people have been hit hard by the monsoon showers, people in Lahore are also grappling with a delay in resolution of issues related to rainwater drainage, open manholes, non-provision of water supply, and seepage leading to the creation of sinkholes, reported Dawn.

The situation is worsening fast as the senior officials of Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) are allegedly neither responding to the public phone calls or messages nor deputing any focal person to get such civic issues resolved on time, the report stated.
However, while probing the recent urban flooding in Lahore, an inquiry team has also identified wrong level of roads another reason behind accumulation of rainwater that wreaked havoc on the city, leading to the closure of the Lahore Canal, according to Dawn.

Aziz, a resident of Pine Avenue, said, “On June 26, heavy rains were not less than a disaster in our locality as the rainwater entered our houses after the Sattukatla drain overflowed due to silting and lack of cleanliness. We registered complaints with the authorities concerned but no one responded. Later, we approached the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) top officials through a source but to no avail despite the fact the excavator meant for desilting and keeping the drain clean was available at site. But it was without a driver.”

“We just wanted to have a driver to operate the excavator but no one sent a driver. Next day, the driver came and started cleaning the drain. But before that it had already damaged our houses,” he added.

Aziz added that the residents (Pine Avenue) would have averted the damage caused by the drain’s overflow if WASA management had deputed someone to resolve the issue on time.

He said a couple of days later, another spell of heavy rainfall caused overflowing of the Sattukatla drain, but no-one reached our area despite the fact that we had informed the WASA top officials, according to Dawn.

Faisal, a resident of Kapurthala House (Old Anarkali), said the heavy rain caused accumulation of huge amounts of rainwater in his locality, due to the choked sewerage and lack of proper drainage. “This turned our area into Venice. No WASA official reached there to ensure timely drainage of rainwater while wastewater also accumulated there. This forced the residents to keep restricted to their houses for several hours. Resultantly, we couldn’t bring something to cook,” he said.

“Moreover, most manholes in our area are without covers. We also heard that some kids narrowly escaped falling into the manholes full of sewage. After two days, Wasa sent someone to cover the manholes when the locals had covered the manholes with wooden brackets on their own,” he added, according to Dawn.

He appealed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Chief Secretary Zahid Zaman and Lahore Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa to reprimand WASA officers concerned for not responding to the public complaints, Dawn reported.

Complaints were also received from the residents of Gulberg, Johar Town, Faisal Town, Peco Road, northern Lahore localities and some other parts of the city.

Yasir, another local resident said, “Yesterday, a huge sinkhole suddenly appeared on the Peco Road (Township) after the rainwater caused erosion of land. There are also reports that many people narrowly escaped fall into the sinkhole.”