KARACHI, Aug 9: Despite tall claims made by the officials that the cleaning of all rivers and storm-water drains has been completed and all civic agencies have been put on a red alert to cope with the consequences of monsoon season
, a number of major nullahs are still choked with trash and garbage and thousands of families continue to reside all along the beds of both Lyari and Malir rivers.
On the one hand, roads and streets in various localities are in a dilapidated condition and, on the other, a number of open manholes of not only sewerage lines, but also of storm-water drains are posing a threat to people.
Besides, over a dozen major thoroughfares which have been devastated owing to frequent movement of tankers will also pose a danger to motorists and pedestrians. To the utter surprise of many, the concerned officials have not yet covered the manholes of a storm-water drain/sewerage nullah which runs along the boundary walls of the city district complex, situated in the Civic Centre.
Although no loss of human lives was reported during the last monsoon owing to arrangements made by the city district government, there is a threat to the lives of thousands of people who still continue to live on the beds of both the Lyari and Malir rivers.
Although the KBCA, in collaboration with the CDGK's works and services department, had launched a campaign of cleaning the city's nullahs between June 2 and 25, a number of officials associated with the drive admitted that they could not clean major nullahs, numbering nine, properly as most of them were found heavily encroached upon, and the cleaning staff could not reach there owing to encroachments.
At a number of nullahs, either markets have been set up or these have been converted into parking lots, officials said, adding in Clifton's Block 7, people have even constructed bungalows on a major nullah.
Besides, in most of the cases, staff deputed for the cleaning of nullahs has dumped garbage and sludge taken out from the nullahs on both sides of the rivers and it is feared that the heaps of garbage on both sides of the rivers' will again enter the channel once the city receives heavy rains.
For instance, one may see garbage beneath the Gujjar Nullah which bifurcates Liaquatabad with Nazimabad. As the authorities concerned have neither removed encroachments from the beds of Lyari and Malir rivers, nor have they made arrangement for the shifting of thousands of families residing in kachcha-pucca houses and huts on both sides of the rivers, it is feared that they might be swept away in heavy rains.
Giving details of the major rivers and nullahs of the city, the officials said that the length of natural nullahs and canals in the city is 242 miles while the length of storm-water drains constructed all along roads is 1210 miles.
However, most of them often remain choked with garbage, filth and polythene bags, mainly because the towns officials have no mechanism to undertake cleaning of nullahs passing under their jurisdictions round- the-year.
They said that the major nullahs are situated on Nishtar Road, Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan Road, I. I. Chundrigar Road, M. A. Jinnah Road, Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi Road, Sharea Quaideen, Jehangir Road, Business Recorder Road, Shahrah Iraq, Shershah Suri Road, Sharea Pakistan, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road, Allama Rasheed Turabi Road, Rashid Minhas Road, Tariq Road and University Road.
Similarly, the major network of storm-water drains lies between North Karachi, North Nazimabad and Gulshan-i-Iqbal. About the Lyari River, they said it starts from Gadap Town and falls in Lyari Town and then falls into the sea in Keamari Town after passing through Gulshan, Gulberg, Liaquatabad and SITE towns.
Malir River also begins from Gadap Town and after passing through a number of towns, such as Bin Qasim, Malir, Shah Faisal, Landhi and Korangi, falls into the sea through Korangi Creek.
The nullah which affects Sharea Faisal most is the one which passes through Falaknaz Plaza, situated in front of Karachi Airport. It reaches Golden Town and Azimpura via Malir Cantonment and Airport Area, but its width at the Falaknaz Plaza has been reduced to just 20 feet as against its original 100-feet width mainly owing to heavy encroachment.
They also feared that population of Landhi and Korangi is exposed to rain hazards because nullahs carrying industrial effluents also enters sea after passing through Bhitai Colony and Korangi Crossing.
