KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has issued necessary directives for immediate measures for the removal of all encroachments from stormwater drains in order to cope with the situation anticipated to arise out of the torrential rains in the city from Monday to Thursday, as forecast by the Met Office, which has also warned of flash floods.

According to a statement, the chief minister issued the directives while presiding over a meeting held at CM House on Saturday to take stock of the situation in the light of the fresh weather forecast. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, CM’s principal secretary Alamuddin Bullo, Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Siddiqui, Finance Secretary Sohail Rajput, as well as deputy commissioners of city’s districts and other officials concerned.

Citing the fresh forecast, the chief secretary told the meeting that the Met Office had forecast heavy rains to hit the city from Monday to Thursday. He said that all the departments concerned had been asked to take necessary measures to cope with rain-related issues, including flash floods.

The chief minister said that he had recently visited major stormwater drains and found encroachments raised over them and illegal settlements set up inside and along these waterways. He wondered how these stormwater drains could be cleaned when they were occupied and blocked with encroachments and settlements.

The statement said: “The chief minister directed the Karachi commissioner to conduct a survey of illegal public settlements inside and along the stormwater drains and suggest measure to remove them,” it said.

“We are left with two options; either to remove public settlements from the nullahs or let citizens be flooded. And the clear and loud decision is to remove illegal encroachments from the nullahs,” the statement quoted the chief minister as saying.

Flood situation report

Mr Bullo told the meeting that the latest report issued by the irrigation department on the flood situation at the two barrages in the province suggested that the discharge at the Guddu barrage had risen to 499,910 cusec upstream and 479,018 cusec downstream. The flow is medium flood, he added.

At the Sukkur barrage, he said the discharge has increased to 366,500 cusec upstream and 325,130 cusec downstream (medium flood). The Kotri barrage, however, the water flow appeared to be normal at 144,170 cusec upstream and 129,645 cusec downstream, Mr Bullo observed.

He informed the chief minister that the irrigation department anticipated the discharge at Guddu barrage upstream to further increase to 505,000-535,000 cusec by Sunday (July 26).

The CM asked the chief secretary to put the local bodies and irrigation departments as well as water and sewerage boards on alert and take all precautionary measures in view of the rain forecast.

Mr Shah also directed PPP divisional and district leadership across Sindh to mobilise party workers for relief and rescue works in case of any emergency.

Houses for lawmakers

Meanwhile, Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durani on Saturday called on the chief minister at CM House and briefed him about construction of houses for parliamentarians at the site of the MPAs’ Hostel.

He said two towers each serving as hostels and family residences would be constructed under a project costing Rs4.5 billion.

According to a statement issued from CM House, the chief minister told the speaker to launch the project and assured him that adequate funds would be released to ensure completion of the project on time.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2015

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