RAWALPINDI: The monsoon season has almost ended, but this year around, the rains exposed the poor drainage system in the garrison city, forcing the Punjab government to seek a comprehensive plan from the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

In Rawalpindi 70pc area is without a proper sewerage system.

A senior Wasa official told Dawn that the existing sewerage system, which was laid back in 1957, covered only about 30pc of the area, adding that the sewage lines had become old and rusty and could no longer bear the burden of sewage flow.

He said the undersized sewerage system was hardly capable of handling discharge overflows during the dry weather and created unhealthy environmental conditions.

He said the remaining 70pc of the city’s raw sewage was disposed of through the street-side drains which ultimately discharged into Leh Nullah, polluting the environment.

The present sewerage system facilities are limited to Satellite Town, Khayaban-i-Sir Syed, Mukha Singh Estate, Asghar Mall Scheme, Eidgah Scheme, Gulshan Dadan Khan, Dhoke Babu Irfan and some adjoining areas.

The downtown area is without proper sewerage system, which exposed the poor planning of past provincial governments.

Interestingly, the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation, which was responsible for the construction of drains along the streets and roads, had no data of drains.

“Most drains were undersized in the city areas and could not handle the sewage discharge due to rapid commercialisation in the inner city,” a senior official of the planning department of district administration said.

He said under the law, in the residential areas, people were allowed to construct two-storey buildings but they ended up building more than three to four-storey buildings.

“This means four families reside in each building, as a result the sewerage system collapses,” the official said.

Therefore, every monsoon season, low-lying parts of the garrison city find themselves submerged under several feet of rainwater.

This chronic problem persists despite round-the-clock efforts by civic agencies, such as Wasa, to drain the accumulated water promptly.

Almost all of these neighbourhoods fall along the banks of Leh Nullah and have the same ground level as the riverbed, which makes them susceptible to inundation, as every time the water level in Leh rises these areas come under water.

This season, the nullah rose to 19 feet in Gawalmandi, only a few feet below the ‘danger level’.

According to Wasa Managing Director Saleem Ashraf, low-lying areas of the city are inundated whenever Leh swells due to rain in its catchment areas which fall in Islamabad.

The areas which fared the worst during the monsoon downpour include Nadeem Colony, Javed Colony, Arya Mohallah, Muslim Colony, Dhoke Ratta, Ganjmandi, Jamia Masjid Road, Bani Chowk, Sadiqabad, Bohar Bazaar, Naya Mohallah, Iqbal Road, Kohati Bazaar, Mochi Bazaar, Mohanpura, Nanakpura, Arjan Nagar, Amarpura, Khayaban-i-Sir Syed. Some of these areas were under up to four feet of rainwater during recent rains.

Despite the fact, Leh has been wreaking havoc in low-lying areas for the last several years, a serious effort from the local administration with tangible results is yet to be seen. The annual dredging of Leh and other nullahs, which cost billions of rupees, did improve the situation to an extent but the situation in low-lying areas remained dire.

‘Used to suffering’

Allah Ditta, a resident of Javed Colony, said Leh Nullah had become a big nuisance for the residents but they have also gotten used to the suffering that came with living on its banks.

Speaking about the monsoon season, he said to escape the accumulated sewage in their street they moved their belongings to the first floor of the house but the children and women in his family dreaded the rain. He complained that the successive governments did not take practical measures to save them from the wrath of the nullah and they had even given up hope.

“Residents have no confidence in the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board and most of them have shifted their valuable goods to the upper storeys of their houses to ensure the safety of their valuables,” said Imran Saleem, a resident of Gawalmandi.

“Every year, we shift to the upper storey of our house before the monsoon,” said Naseem Javed, a resident of Chamanzar Colony. He said that the rainwater destroyed their household items many a time but they were helpless. “We have no money to move to another locality,” Mr Javed lamented.

Plans for Leh

The Rawalpindi administrators had come up with many plans to fix the problem but due to the apathy and negligence of the departments concerned, they did not see the light of the day.

Former district nazim Raja Tariq Kiani told Dawn that after the 2001 flood, the then-city district government Rawalpindi (CDGR) made a detailed design to stop flooding in the garrison city.

Under this plan, the CDGR signed an agreement with the Asian Development Bank to start the Rawalpindi Environment Protection Project. As a part of this plan, the government planned to lay sewer trunks on both sides of the nullah and install a sewerage system in all union councils of Rawalpindi. However, the project – which started in 2005 – could not move forward due to red tape and the loan was cancelled despite a three-year extension in the project.

He said the Punjab government and CDGR had also acquired residential and commercial lands along Leh Nullah but these were subsequently encroached due to the negligence of the Rawalpindi Development Authority and the local administration. He touted ‘trunk sewers’ as the only solution to the Leh problem as well as concrete walls along its banks.

According to Wasa DG, the civic agency dredged Leh Nullah every year to avoid flooding but since the low-lying parts of the city were on the same ground level as Leh they were quickly inundated. He also blamed the illegal construction of houses along Leh and other big drains for the flooding.

The Wasa official said dredging would not stop flooding in the nullah but it removed the solid waste and construction material from the nullah, improving the water flow.

“More than 70 per cent of water in Leh comes from Islamabad and there is a dire need to improve the condition of the nullah in the federal capital as it subsequently affects the low-lying areas in Rawalpindi,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wasa MD Saleem Ashraf said the Punjab chief minister had sought a permanent solution to the flooding in the nullah.

“We prepared the report and sent it to the Punjab government,” he said, adding, “Rs170 billion are required for the alignment of Leh and other nullahs, including big drains in Amarpura, Liaquat Bagh, Qadeemi Imambargah Road…and adjoining areas,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner Dr Hassan Waqar Cheema told Dawn that he visited the low-lying areas and asked the civic bodies to remove all the encroachments along the nullahs. He said the local administration would not allow informal settlements along the nullahs.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2024