KARACHI, Aug 10: The entire infrastructure of civic facilities in Lyari Town has almost collapsed as a result of monsoon rains, a survey shows.

According to the residents, lack of proper planning on the part of the civic agencies continues to aggravate the problems of the city’s oldest locality.

Residents and community leaders accused successive governments and development agencies of neglecting Lyari despite frequently-held rallies to draw their attention to the pressing problems.

They said most of these problems pertained to crumbling civic system which had almost collapsed. They listed water shortage, defective sewerage system, frequent power breakdowns and dilapidated roads as some of the problems which needed an early solution.

The Lyariites argued that while other areas of the city were planned and developed in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Lyari was left with an infrastructure that had become obsolete. Moreover, they maintained, the uncontrolled population growth in the area crowded the available plots, measuring an average 40-60 square yards, which were not large enough to accommodate expanding families.

They said the resultant proliferation of multi-storey buildings, with as little as five or six feet passage between them, and the parallel increase in commercial activity, had caused gradual congestion in the whole of Lyari.

According to them, the recent rainfall has exposed the fragile civic system which totally collapsed at the very onset. The drainage system also suffered the same fate as the rainwater entered into sewerage conduits which could not stand the pressure of rainwater, paralysing the outdated system.

An official of Lyari Town admitted that standing water played havoc with the localities along the Lyari River where work on an the expressway was in progress under the supervision of the National Highway Authority (NHA).

The rain exposed the technical mistake by NHA which had ignored the vital aspect of the project. During the construction work, they had totally disregarded an outlet to flush out rainwater.

As a result, streets and roads within the Lyari River’s embankment area — Agra Taj Colony, Bihar Colony and parts of Hingorabad, Daryabad, Nawabad, Khadda and Mauripur Road — were flooded with rainwater and sewage. The frequent power breakdowns further aggravated the situation adding to the miseries of people who were left with no other choice but to drain out rainwater from their houses on self-help basis.

The youths of Daryabad braved the situation and performed sanitation work in their respective localities by themselves without any help from the civic agencies. These youths even cleared clogged gutter lines to revive the sewerage system.

A social worker, criticizing the civic agencies for their mismanagement and ill-planning, said: “The fault is partly ours as we have failed to produce an effective leadership capable of solving our problems. Moreover, we are sentimental about our land and family system. The newcomers, instead of acquiring a new vacant plot to build a house, simply build a new structure attached to their relatives’ house.”

A small piece of land, hardly enough for one family, is occupied by several families, he further argued, and said that with the passage of time, the streets once wide enough for two big trucks had narrowed down to the extent that even a coffin could not be carried through them.

One of the reasons for the collapse of the sewerage system, he said, was illegal sewage links (in some cases connecting sewage drains with open storm drains) which had overloaded the main lines to the point of constant clogging and damage.