DADU, Oct 18: Collapse of drainage system about two months back has resulted in the inundation of many areas of Dadu city, including those falling in at least four union councils, with sewage. Besides, the system failure has badly affected water supply system in the town.

Although, Dadu taluka municipal administration’s sanitation staff was attending to specific complaints from the worst-hit area, they were unable to rectify the main cause of the system failure which was stated to be abandoning of work on the drainage improvement scheme half way.

Almost the entire city is hit by sewage with filthy stinky water flowing on every second road and street for the past two months. Residents of Dadu are not only facing hardship in moving from one place to the other but also exposed to serious health hazards.

Dadu TMA chief municipal officer Pir Wahid Bukhsh told Dawn said that the municipality had a total of 575 employees at its disposal and of them 200 were meant for sanitation work.

Commenting on the collapse of the drainage system and the municipality’s failure to cope with the situation, he said the main cause was encroachment of a 15-foot-wide portion of the pathway of the main drain near Mallah Chowk in the Masan area by a person. “The man has dumped stones and filth at this particular site which has blocked the course of the city’s main drain. The TMA staff has been trying to remove the dumped stones and filth for many days,” he said, and expressed the hoped that the work would be completed soon to clear the drain course.

The CMO said that a lack of adequate funds was another reason for the municipality failure to carry out the work. “The provincial government has so far release only 70 per cent of the allocated funds to the TMA and we had to disburse the amount under the heads of salaries and fuel, etc.”

Dadu Deputy Commissioner Nasir Abbas Soomro said that he had directed the CMO to get all thoroughfares, streets and lanes cleared of sewage. “The CMO has been told to employee any available machinery required for the purpose without any delay,” he said.

A number of Dadu residents complained that the elected representatives were not paying due attention to their pressing problem. They said that the MNA and MPA of the area appeared absolutely indifferent to their woes. They alleged that nepotism, favourtism and corruption within the TMA were actually behind the citizens’ plight.

MNA Rafique Ahmed Jamali, who belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party, however, rejected the allegations.

He told Dawn that he would personally look into the cause of the collapse of the drainage system and would also visit the affected areas. He said the government was duty-bound to provide basic amenities including water and proper sanitation to citizens. He held out the assurance that the issues would be resolved on a priority basis and anyone found involved in lethargy, negligence or corruption would be dealt with sternly.

A very recent survey of the affected areas endorsed citizens’ claims about unhygienic conditions created by sewage in most parts of the city.

Residents of various localities told this scribe that filthy water overflowing from the drain had blocked access to their houses and workplaces as well as markets, bazaars and commercial areas. Manholes without cover were not visible due to inundation of roads and streets, they said.

Stinking filthy water accumulated for several weeks in most localities of the four UCs had turned the environment intolerable to human beings, they said.

Some of them attributed the situation to ‘rampant corruption’ in the TMA, alleging that millions of rupees had been embezzled from the drain improvement and water supply schemes funds. “That’s why the work had to be stopped,” they claimed.

Some others suggested that the drainage system could not be improved in so many weeks because inefficient people recruited on political grounds were handling the TMA affairs.

Residents of Shahani Mohalla, Jagatabad and Katchehry Road said that their areas were regarded as posh but the failed drainage system had devastated them. Station Road, Shah Bazaar, Rai Bazaar, new and old bus stand and old Sabzi Mandi areas were also badly affected by the filthy water, which was contaminating drinking water by seeping into the underground pipelines, they said Mohammad Azam, a shopkeeper having his outlet on Station Road, complained that the entire bazaar along the road had been hit by sewage for the two months and shopkeepers and traders were unable to do their business in this situation.

Mohammad Omer Lund, a resident of Chhano Shahabad Mohalla, referred to a place where drain water had made its way into the oldest graveyard of the city. He claimed that the CMO, stated to be a relative of the PPP MPA Pir Mujeebul Haq, was hardly able to handle his own job but was given the additional charges of the town municipal officer and administrator.

The affected residents of Dadu appealed to the PPP chairman, co-chairman and Sindh chief minister to direct the local government minister to pay due attention to their miseries and resolve the civic issues on an urgent basis, besides looking into corruption within the TMA.

Khalid Hussain, a resident of Katchehry Road recalled that former Dadu deputy commissioner had recommended to the provincial chief secretary LG secretary that inefficient officers and workers hired illegally in the TMA should be removed to rid the administration of unnecessary financial burden.

Mr Hussain also claimed that mega project costing Rs700 million to improve the city’s drainage system had been launched by the PPP government several years back but was shelved due to unknown reasons.