RAWALPINDI: The Punjab Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department on Friday asked Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) to make a comprehensive plan to avoid flood-like situation in the garrison city this monsoon.

Another directive was given to the authority to complete the survey of all tubewells and filtration plants to check quality of water and repair out-of-order water pumps.

These directives were given by Punjab Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering department Secretary Mian Shakil Ahmed during his visit to the garrison city on Friday to check Wasa’s preparedness to avoid flood-like situation in the wake of forecast of above normal rains this monsoon.

Wasa Managing Director Mohammad Tanveer gave a detailed briefing to the Punjab Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department secretary and said Wasa had already made a comprehensive plan and in this regard the city had been divided in four sectors and staff deployed to deal with water accumulation complaints round the clock.

He said these flood response units established at Liaquat Bagh, Moti Mahal, Commercial Market, Satellite Town, Bagh Sardaran and Khayaban-i-Sir Syed.

He said there are six sucker machines, five jetting machines and 28 de-watering sets available with the agency to drain out water from low lying areas. He said that the staff assigned duties to deal with heavy rain.

He said to avoid water shortage, Wasa had 22 water tankers at its disposal to provide water on complaints.

Commissioner Noorul Amin Mengal informed the newsmen that secretary Punjab Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering department that the matter between Wasa and Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation had been solved regarding cleaning of big nullahs of the garrison city ahead of monsoon and coordination committee of Wasa and other civic bodies had been formed to complete the task.

He said the administration was monitoring the situation and it would help the civic bodies to make proper arrangements to avoid flood like situation in the garrison city.

Every year, Leh Nullah swelled during monsoon season. The last devastating flood that Leh Nullah witnessed was on July 23, 2001. Just a few hours of 620mm rain resulted in the worst floods in the city’s history in which 35 people were killed and many slums were swept away, resulting in the loss of millions of rupees.

Punjab Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering department Secretary Mian Shakil Ahmed appreciated the work of Wasa and asked to speed up the work to clean Leh Nullah by June 30.

Punjab government provided Rs30 million to Wasa to clean the Leh Nullah from Katarian Bridge to Moti Mahal by end of June.

The secretary said that the government was working to provide water to the citizens and in this regard, the work of Dadocha Dam and Chahan Dam was started.

He said that Chahan Dam will provide water to 380,000 people and Dadocha Dam will provide water to 80,000 citizens.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2022