JHANG: Rainwater, accumulated in the low-lying areas and ponds in the suburban localities of Jhang is posing health hazard to the citizens, courtesy negligence and indifferent attitude of the tehsil municipal administration (TMA) that is not draining it out from the streets and roads in many areas of the city.

The stagnant water may cause the outbreak of dengue, cholera and other waterborne diseases.

Though District Coordination Officer Ghazi Amanullah was quick to hand over cheques worth Rs50,000 each to the heirs of two children of kiln workers who had drowned in a rainwater pond in the locality Kot Sai Singh on the Jhang-Faisalabad road on Friday, there are no signs of action against the TMA officials whose negligence indirectly caused the incident. There is also the deteriorating sanitary condition in the city which is facing the threat of being submerged in rainwater in case of one more heavy rain.

Last week, on the directions of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) Faisalabad managing director and Public Health Engineering Department chief engineer visited Jhang to inspect the choked sewerage and rainwater ponds in areas of the city. They prepared a report for the CM, pointing out the poor performance of the TMA but no action has been taken on the report so far.

A TMA source told this scribe that they were doing everything possible to drain the stinking water from the low-lying areas but they are facing problems like absence of machinery for such operations. Another issue is the shortage of manpower trained for such jobs.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2016