LAHORE: Two heavy spells of torrential rain and 90-kilmeters windstorm on Wednesday flooded better parts of the city, rendered almost 35 per cent of it without power and water supplies, led to traffic mess on all roads for the day and left the city reeling under the disastrous impact of the morning downpour by the time this report was filed late in the evening.

Bad news for the Lahorites, who were still facing issues like submerged roads and entire localities – even the posh ones like Gulberg and DHA – turned into pools of water, was that the meteorological department had predicted more rains for the night and Thursday morning and warned that the next two days (Friday and Saturday) could bring even heavier showers.

According to data issued by the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), 12 of its 16 monitoring points in the city recorded over 200 millimeters of rain – between 208mm to 291mm in 10-hour spell, which, according to it, broke 30-year record. Even those points which were below 200mm mark did not fall far behind: the Upper Mall recorded 192 and Samanabad 178mm.

The rain and windstorm started at 4am and terminated at 1pm, with 30-minute break around 9am. The sheer intensity and short time span burdened the city and its civic agencies beyond their infrastructural and human capacity.

Posh areas, low-lying localities submerged by water; power supply disrupted

“The Wasa system could drain only 30mm rain, and whatever falls over and above stays on the roads or in low-lying areas,” explains a former employee of the agency. In simpler terms, what happened on Wednesday was 80 per cent more than the capacity of the agency and all of us know it. Rest is photo ops, where the chief minister, commissioner, managing director Wasa and other officials converge on certain points and look to be doing something about it. What complicates the matter is the way the agency is trained to handle it all.

“It is stuck in old ways and concentrates on historical choking points, whereas many new ones have emerged with underpasses and overhead bridges added to the roads and development works taking place in the city and suburban areas. Those points are yet to emerge on the Wasa radars,” he says.

Even places like DHA looked like a big pool, where dividers disappeared in knee-deep water which accumulated on Main Boulevard and roads connecting to different phases. Countless cars were submerged by water and many broke down. Gulberg too represented exactly the same mess. This is despite the fact that vehicles in both upscale localities are far better than many others parts of the city. Canal Road, one of the better treated routes in the city, was even in deeper trouble as canal overflowed and flooded many localities along it.

“The Wasa system got choked in the morning and drainage became almost impossible. Only a few hundred yards away from its head office, Zahoor Elahi road had completely submerged by water and it was so till late in the evening. This is despite former chief minister and prime minister residing on the road and spending millions of rupees on its improvement,” says Muhammad Akbar – a resident of the area.

Crossing it on a vehicle is now a 30-minute job as drivers avoid deeper side of the road and clog upper side where water is thin. This is how city gets choked because drivers on all roads practice this and create hours-long jams, he said.

Water and electricity supply issues also burdened life of Lahorites. According to the Lesco data, out of 1,200 city feeders, over 400 tripped as wind and rains lashed its infrastructure and most of them remained off. With no power, most of the tubewells supplying water to the city go offline.

Commenting on the situation, Mujahid Chatha, former head of Lesco, advises that shifting distribution wires underground is the only solution otherwise the Lahorites would be constrained to spend better part of rainy days without power as old trees can hardly stand 90-km windstorm and disrupt distribution lines.

“The Lesco conducted a study three years ago on cost of shifting the system underground and it came to around Rs100 billion. Unless this money is spent, this aging and overlapping system can neither handle high winds nor heavy rains,” he said.

“The city development and its civic infrastructure handling is, in fact, in regression,” claims a former director of Lahore Development Authority (LDA).

Historically, LDA was the only, or at least, main improvement agency, trying to develop integrated development models. With inductions of bodies like the Central Business District (CBD), playing on the LDA development pitch, rivalries, rather than cooperation, is the new working ethos. How submerging of CBD underpass in late June and its development on the Walton road were handled should be an eye opener for the provincial authorities. It needs to be taken care of, he advises, saying it is always better to create complementing rather than competing bodies in mega cities like Lahore.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2023