A team headed by Special Secretary Local Government Suleman Chandio, expert in sewerage system, visited the city's key drainage project, storm water drain and old drainage system on Wednesday.

The engineers, instead of cleaning the main and side trunks, have diverted the pressure by installing smaller pumping stations to avoid the serious issue of choking of gutters. The system for which three pumping stations were enough is now working with 39 pumping stations, said DCO Muhammed Jaffer Abbasi.

However, municipal authorities, seeking technical assistance from the Public Health Department, were constructing parallel sewers at the places where gutters were oozing and choking main lines.

MNA Faryal Talpur, realising the situation, has entrusted the experts to undertake a survey immediately and suggest solutions, said Dr Shafqat Soomro, Chairman Sindh Peoples Development Committee (SPDC), Larkana district.

A comprehensive sewer system which would meet the needs of next 50 years would be ensured with the focus to protecting Rice Canal and Dadu Canal from contamination as it were the only source of drinking water for the downstream population, he said.

Sulman Chandio told journalists that the existing sewerage system was completely choked because of the inattention of TMA. He promised of reviving the system by clearing its main trunks of silt for restoration of normal gravitational flow and avoiding overflowing and choking of gutters. He criticised the Public Health Department for constructing defective rain water drains and without taking into consideration the depressions.

DCO Muhammed Jaffer Abbasi said that 65 depressions in the city were the main hurdle in streamlining the system along with the swelling population. The team members proposed constructing new channel running parallel with the Rice Canal and linking it with the main Scarp drain near Mashori Sharif.

PPP leaders accompanying the team advised of preparing a plan which should not intervene the under construction network of roads in the city.

They expressed concern over the presence of electric poles inside the storm-water drains and new system of sewers because any blockade was capable of choking the system.

Team members, DCO and PPP leaders slammed the TMA for not paying proper attention to main disposal system as one motor out of three was not enough to sustain the burden.

The Public Health Department, keeping in mind the future requirements, has prepared a drainage plan worth Rs99 million which would be updated in consultations with the experts, said Dr Shafqat Soomro adding that blueprint would be prepared urgently.

EDO Larkana had already forwarded the studies on Rice Canal's water to the department with the findings that it was not only unsafe but unfit for human consumption, said the sources.