KARACHI, July 16: The town administration of Lyari is yet not prepared to meet any rain emergency as major storm water drains passing through the town have not been cleaned and residents fear that impeding monsoon will play havoc with their life and property.
Two major drains – Kalri nullah and Pitcher Road nullah – are the natural route of storm water flow to the Arabian Sea after passing through the narrow streets of the locality. At present, both these drains are chocked with garbage and other waste materials.
A survey of the town shows that major parts of the drains are covered with concrete and as such they are not regularly cleaned. Some people have encroached upon the major parts of the drains and set up shops creating hurdles in the cleaning work. Besides, open drains are being used for dumping garbage and other wastes.
When contacted, Lyari Town Nazim Fayyaz Malik admitted that cleaning work on these drains had not been carried out so far by the concerned department of the city district government, saying that impeding monsoon may cause severe flooding. He said the city nazim had been informed about the ‘alarming situation’ through official communication.
Following a visit to the Chawkiwara pumping station to inspect the maintenance works being undertaken by the city government, Mr Malik said that works on various projects including improvement of roads being executed by the city government was slow as all work orders of these projects were given to a single contractor.
He also said that lack of coordination between the city government and town departments was also hindering the pace of development works in the town. He was of the view that had there been effective coordination, the situation would have been different.
About water shortage problem, the town nazim said: “We are not getting even the official share of 13mgd water which is being diverted to Jamshed, Saddar and Keamari towns.” According to him, hardly eight million gallon daily water was being supplied to the town which was insufficient to meet the water needs of town residents.
He said that financial constraints had remained a constant problem during the last fiscal year too. In fact, Lyari was the only town which was crippled financially due to lack of a sound resource generation base as its commercial areas had been merged with Saddar Town and was depended financially on the city or provincial governments for carrying out its civic works, he added.
Because of an unjustifiable delimitation of the town, he said that almost all commercial and revenue generating areas of the town including Lea Market and Timber markets had been excluded from the jurisdiction of the town’s municipal administration.
