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| July 30, 2006 | Sunday | Rajab 3, 1427 |
Water supply suspended to 100 Tajpura houses
LAHORE, July 29: Fearing epidemic outbreak in Tajpura potable water supply has been suspended in parts of the area where recent rains caused serious damage to life and property .
According to city district government sources, water supply to about 100 houses in the area has been suspended following heavy rains a couple of days ago. As an alternative measure, the CDGL is supplying water to the affected area residents through tankers. People, including elderly women and children, are seen standing in long queues to get potable water.
“I have to cover long distance to get a pot full of water from a tanker that is not enough to meet the daily requirements. It is very difficult for me to come again and again to collect water as my husband has to go to work, and he can’t assist me in this regard,” Ruqia Bibi of Tajpura said.
According to the residents, CDGL’s water tankers are not available in these areas after morning hours which is creating problems for them. “We have to go to nearby areas to fetch water in the evening because it is not possible for us to store enough water in tanks,” she added.
EDO (health) Dr Inamul Azam, however, claimed that some eight tankers were being sent to Tajpura daily in different hours to ensure supply of clean water to the residents of the affected areas.
He said: “Water supply to such areas has been suspended to avoid mixing of sewage with drinking water, and any possible outbreak of epidemics.”
He said the CDGL and the Rangers had set up medical camps in the area where vaccination and other treatment facilities were being provided to more than 2,000 people.
Dr Haq claimed that no case of gastroenteritis or related diseases had been reported in the area.
The area also lacks proper arrangements for disposal of solid waste and people have to dump garbage in open plots and on green-belts. When it rains heavily, the garbage gets mixed with the rainwater giving a foul smell.
Heavy rains have also exposed the quality of roadwork in the area as huge craters have appeared in most of the street and main roads, hindering smooth flow of traffic, besides causing problems for pedestrians.
A CDGL official claimed that three pumps had been installed in the affected areas to flush out the rainwater from houses and a school building for special children.
The residents apprehended that the Rs160 million pledged by the chief minister for the replacement of sewerage system in Tajpura and adjoining areas would not be executed in letter and spirit.
The sources said that Tajpura was one of the initial housing schemes launched in the city by the Lahore Development Authority some two decades ago. Since then, no major development work had reportedly been carried out in the area, they added. Besides, hundreds of houses had been constructed in the scheme without the LDA’s approval that resulted in haphazard growth of houses, they said.
The illegal constructions are creating sewerage problems in the area as neither the LDA nor the CDGL seems to be interested in addressing the issue.
The sources said the LDA had abandoned Tajpura scheme since its development, and it never bothered to check the illegal construction there. They said some seven years ago, about two-feet diameter sewerage pipes were laid in parts of Tajpura, but they needed to be replaced with bigger pipes keeping in view the manifold increase in the area population.
About the special children’s school in the area, where a young man drowned while attempting to save children, they said no civic agency could have approved its construction as it was built some 10-15 feet down the ground level.
Some area residents complained they had been submitting applications to the LDA since long for laying new sewerage pipes in the area but to no avail.
It is also learnt that the LDA has not initiated any drain de-silting campaign in the city during the last seven years.
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