HYDERABAD: Despite the fact that the old civic utilities system in Hyderabad outlived its life many years ago, and has become too overburdened and often develops hiccups adding to people’s hardships, the city is still without a functioning master plan.

The absence of a master plan has worsened the performance of sewerage, drainage and solid wastage management in the city that contributes heavily to the national exchequer.

One of the reasons that aggravated the situation is a policy of short term and ad hoc measures by the Sindh government which has led to the contamination of Phulelli canal, a major source of water for the city’s population.

The district government had prepared a master plan in 2007 for the entire district which was supposed to remain effective till 2027 but failed to see the light of day. A similar plan had been prepared in 1985 by the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) but that too was later shelved.

Residents of Hyderabad feel their city has remained a victim of official neglect for decades as it has not received sufficient funds to run and maintain its drainage and sewerage systems in an efficient manner.

The sense of deprivation has been caused by the way the Sindh government has been managing the affairs of the HDA and the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), the bodies primarily responsible for the civic system’s maintenance and upgrade. It is proof to the government’s utter lack of concern and empathy for the people’s sufferings.

“The 2007 master plan was flawed and its implementation was next to impossible,” said an officer associated with the Hyderabad Development Package (HDP), which was launched after the Musharraf government gave Rs10.5 billion to the city’s then district government.

But the officer’s colleague who wishes not to be named did not agree with him. He said: “There are always issues with such plans that need further study. Same is the case with this plan which needs approval. Secondly, we [officers] are directly responsible for the people’s civic woes as we focus more on minting money [from such plans] one way or the other instead of doing our best to utilise the available funds in a transparent manner,” he remarked.

In addition to its lack of master plan, the city also does not have a solid waste management system with the result that heaps of uncollected garbage generated on a daily basis eventually finds its way into manholes, further weakening the fragile sewerage system.

It adds further to the hardships faced by people and worsened by an ill-planned growth of plazas thanks to the liberal policy of the Sindh Building Control Authority that allows such construction without assessing its burden on the existing system.

Rainfall, an unmanageable disaster

The drainage system has become so weak that when it rained 170mm in just one day in Sept 2006, units 2, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of Latifabad remained under water for several days and the army had to be called in to rescue people.

Again, on July 26 and 29 of this year so much rainwater accumulated in Latifabad after only 115.4mm rain that the administration and Wasa had to work round the clock to pump out water from one place and dispose it at another to ease pressure on the system. The system often becomes unresponsive in such conditions.

The system has become very haphazard as there are multiple organisations incharge of drainage and sewerage in the city contributing collectively to the mess. For instance, HDP has recently executed a Rs300 million drainage scheme in Qasimabad. The HDP, which had been launched to utilise a Rs10.5bn package, is being run by HDA’s officers.

Then there is the Hyderabad Water Supply and Sewerage Project and the Greater Hyderabad Sewerage Project of the 1980s and 90s.

Under the two last named projects, for which funds were received from the Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank, southern, northern, eastern and western treatment plants were built. But they are either still incomplete, dysfunctional or require upgradation and rehabilitation.

HDP runs the eastern treatment plant at Darya Khan pumping station which requires to be modernised while cash-strapped Wasa looks after the southern and northern plants which fail to work efficiently.

Some officers claim the plants are working perfectly but their counterparts hasten to reject the claim. “The southern plant is heavily silted and needs expansion whereas the northern plant’s performance is below par,” said an officer.

The eastern plant is federally funded and has not received even 50 per cent of funds since it was launched. The western plant has not yet been handed over to Wasa. These plants are designed to drain out rainwater and that too in case of emergency. However, they are not integrated with the drainage system to be able to dispose of wastewater as well.

Water bodies being polluted

The basic idea behind the treatment plants was to treat wastewater through waste stabilisation ponds before discharging it into canals or the river. Since, Hyderabad lies between the Indus River and its canals, civic bodies find it convenient to throw garbage and domestic wastewater in them.

But it did not happen and the Indus and its canals continue to be polluted by domestic wastewater in violation of environmental laws, forcing large populations who live on the river and canal banks in downstream areas to use the polluted water.

Officers associated with HDP, HDA and Wasa have their own axes to grind. They offer different explanations that fail to address sewerage and drainage issues and no one clarifies why an integrated water resource management has not been put in place despite the expenditure of billions of rupees since the establishment of HDA in the mid 1970s.

Sindh secretary of finance Dr Sohail Rajput is reported to have said recently that over Rs40 billion has been released for Hyderabad but he did not see a matching level of development in the city.

Wasa is attached to the HDA and its performance is far from satisfactory. It keeps calling for subsidies from the government discontinued in the 1990s.

Amid all this, the Sindh government’s half-hearted attempts to streamline civic issues further make matters worse.

The government has reduced the post of HDA’s director general to a game of musical chair.

The post should have been held by an engineer or a bureaucrat but over the past few years it was either held by an accounts officer, an architect or those who had nothing to do with the HDA and civic affairs.

But all these men had one thing common; they had the blessings of the ruling party. The authority appears to be so lucrative that officers fought over it in high court. One lost his case and the other relinquished the ‘look-after’ charge it had been given by the government only after receiving a contempt of court notice.

This, however, failed to change the government’s ad hoc policy towards the HDA. Again, it gave the HDA’s additional charge to Noor Muhammad Leghari who is secretary of livestock.

Residential schemes mushrooming

Despite the fact that the authority has failed to manage its existing system efficiently, it is fond of embarking upon new mega housing schemes while residents of its older schemes like Kohsar phase II, Gulshan-i-Quaid etc, still await the start of development work in their areas.

Although the HDA has not yet been able to complete Gulistan-i-Sarmast, a mega housing scheme on 2,000 acres, it has planned its phase II on 2,800 acres only to benefit an individual under political considerations. The authority itself will not benefit much from this adventure in the long run.

In addition to much-needed funds, what Hyderabad badly needs is an integrated and sustainable sewerage and drainage management system and officers like the outgoing deputy commissioner, Fayaz Jatoi, and Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s former administrator, Khalid Mehmood.

Mr Mehmood did turn things around to some extent at the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation which is plagued by corruption and political interference.

He improved tax recovery, cleared longstanding liabilities of pensioners and planned civic works.

Published in Dawn September 30th, 2015

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