LAHORE: The torrential downpour, which broke all records of rain in the city during the last 44 years, badly disrupted the power and water supply systems in Lahore on Friday, leaving a number of residential and commercial areas without electricity and tap water for several hours.

The heavy rain which lashed the city in the morning kept various civic agencies, especially the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), on toes the whole day, as their field teams remained busy in rectifying faults, ensuring timely drainage of the rainwater accumulated in the low-lying areas and making efforts to restore water supply to consumers.

“We spent many hours without electricity and water after the rain started in the morning. Despite lodging complaints no one arrived to help us,” deplored a resident of Tajpura. “The government departments must look into and resolve the issues (disruption in power and water supply) people generally face in the rainy season and hot weather,” he said.

Similar complaints were also received from various other parts of the city. “I tried to contact Lesco and Wasa twice on phone, but no one attended my calls,” deplored another city resident, saying that the humidity caused by the rain in the absence of electricity was suffocating.

Rainwater drained in most localities by evening, claims Wasa

According to a spokesman for Lesco, till 9:27am as many as 242 feeders of 11kV tripped because of rain. These feeders included 184 of Lahore city and 58 of other districts—Kasur, Okara, Sheikhupura and Nankana Sahjib. Till 10:44pm, the number of tripped feeders reduced to 177, further coming down to 135, including 11 of Lahore city, till 2:18pm after the field teams removed faults and succeeded in energizing a number of feeders.

Talking to Dawn, a Wasa official said during heavy rain, the water supply gets mostly affected due to electricity failure and switching-off of tubewells. “Generally, the tubewells are switched off to check flow of domestic sewage in the pipelines so that the rainwater could be drained out easily. “Wasa has a combined water drainage system which means all pipes are used for domestic sewage as well as rainwater drainage. So, in such heavy rains, if we don’t stop flow of domestic/commercial sewage, it will create issue in drainage of rainwater. That is why the tubewells are often switched off during the rain,” the official requesting anonymity explained, adding that despite all this, Wasa teams try hard to ensure water supply to the consumers.

He said the rain on Friday broke all records of the last 44 years, keeping thousands of Wasa workers led by the officers on toes. On Thursday, the maximum rain was recorded 315mm in Tajpura area of Lahore, he added.

A spokesman for Wasa claimed: “Our teams ensured timely drainage of the rainwater in most of areas in Lahore.”

Wasa Managing Director Ghufran Ahmad told Dawn that except Tajpura, all areas of Lahore were cleared of the rainwater till 7:45pm. “Tajpura received 315mm record rain. Moreover, this is a low lying area due to which it took time to be cleared of rainwater,” he said.

He said the tubewells had been switched off as part of the standard operating procedures (SOPs). “If we continue operation of tubewells, it would overburden our combined drainage system. However, the tubewells were made functional at 7:45pm again,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2024