Urban flooding

Published July 28, 2015
Drainage in urban areas is a crucial obligation of the government, and it must be discharged with more seriousness.—PPI/File
Drainage in urban areas is a crucial obligation of the government, and it must be discharged with more seriousness.—PPI/File

FOR a number of years now, the same water drain in Peshawar has overflowed every time rain hits the city, and causes widespread urban floods and loss of life as well.

Last year too, the same drain — Budhni Nullah — overflowed heavily, and this year it has done so again. More than 300 people have had to be evacuated due to the flooding drain, which passes through densely populated areas.

The provincial minister has attributed the problem to encroachment along the drain’s banks, although others point out that the size of the drain is also inadequate to deal with the kinds of water flows that it has been seeing in recent years.

Take a look: Govt machinery put on alert after rain, ‘urban flooding’ warning

In Lahore too, urban flooding happens with painful regularity in the same localities, like the Gaddafi stadium or Qurtaba Chowk areas, year after year in even mild rains.

Again the problem is caused by the lack of proper drainage which commands far less significance in the eyes of the city’s patrons than grand, visible schemes. Rawalpindi also sees widespread inundation whenever the central drain – Leh Nullah, which runs through the heart of the city – overflows.

Smaller towns like Oghi have also seen a flood surge in their stormwater drains in the latest round of rains, causing the central market to be washed away.

In city after city, the same pattern repeats itself. The rains come, the drains overflow, roads, markets and homes are flooded and the district administration struggles to cope with the aftermath and in some cases calls the army for assistance.

The fact that the source of the problem is the same every year begs one important question: why is remedial action not taken before the onset of the monsoon season?

About Karachi too, which has avoided heavy rains and urban flooding so far this year, the met authorities have been issuing flood alerts for almost a week now, but the chief minister only visited the sites of storm drains on Saturday, a week after the first alerts were issued; he “noted” that encroachments have blocked the stormwater drains.

The fact that it has taken the chief minister this long to notice such an obvious fact, and even that on the eve of a fresh flood alert shows the casual attitude with which the authorities treat climate-related challenges. This wait-and-see attitude must change.

Drainage in urban areas is a crucial obligation of the government, and it must be discharged with more seriousness.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2015

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