ISLAMABAD: As if to illustrate the importance of their agenda, a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change could not be held on Thursday as rainwater flooded the committee room.

The capital received unexpected rain early Thursday morning and when the senators, officials and the minister Mushahid Hussain arrived for the meeting at 10 am, they were surprised to find maintenance staff busy trying to get the water out of the room. The carpeting in the Committee Room Number Four was soaked with almost flour inches still standing in the roam.

The important agenda for the day’s meeting ‘What is Climate Change?’ had to be postponed as no other committee room in the parliament building was available. Cleaning the room was also going to be at least a day’s job as water had to be drained, the furniture taken out and the carpeting removed.

The senators were visibly annoyed at the cancellation of the meeting and reprimanded relevant officers of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in charge of maintenance which got CDA Member Engineering Shahid Sohail to arrive at the parliament house and personally oversee the cleaning.

It was reported that the Committee Room Number 4 was not the only room of the parliament to get flooded but rainwater entered a number of other rooms, including the server room.

Incidentally, the rooms were flooded after only 30 mm of rainfall. The CDA staff at the parliament house told Dawn that drainage of water was disturbed by a recent beautification project taken up by the CDA.

During the beautification of an open area around a fountain, CDA officers had a rockery made at the spot ignoring details of the original design. “Drainage was blocked by mud and debris and water from the elevated rockery was directed towards the corridors and entered the rooms,” said a CDA official.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2015

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