RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: Ten people drowned, of which two including an infant died and one person is missing, in flooding caused by heavy rainfall in the twin cities on Thursday.

A basement of a house in the Police Foundation, PWD, was flooded by nightlong rainfall after a wall of the house collapsed because of the accumulating water.

The basement was filled with water within limits, trapping nine people inside. One of the residents, Farhan, was not home at the time but his wife Sarish and their infant son Shahan drowned to death.

The family residing in the upper portion of the house called the rescue department, and officials were able to evacuate seven people alive and provide them immediate medical assistance.

Rainwater accumulated on the roads and in people’s homes in parts of the capital on Thursday

They included Arslan Farhan, three, Ibrahim Farham, 10, Maha Farhan, seven, Meerab Farhan, 12, Abdul Hanan Adnan, 10, Esha Adnan, 18, and Amina Rehan, eight.

Separately, a man was swept away by swift rainwater in Bahria Town Phase VII, police said, and has not yet been found.

The victim, lawyer Imran Jafar Kiani, was on the way home with Sohail Nawaz and Bilal Matloob Hussain. They had reached the Clock Tower intersection when they found the road submerged in rainwater, Mr Nawaz told police.

He said the car’s engine stopped working as water began seeping inside. They left the case and Mr Nawaz and Mr Hussain were able to catch hold of a tree, but Mr Kiani was swept away by the water.

He said Mr Kiani was swept away in a big drain that did not have a safety wall, and the search for him was also unsuccessful.

Mr Nawaz blamed the housing society’s administration for the incident and filed a complaint with the police against it.

Heavy rainfall leads to flooded roads

The rain brought lower temperatures as well as flooding to the twin cities on Thursday.

Water accumulated on several roads, particularly at Faizabad, where traffic was jammed for hours. According to the Met Office, Islamabad received 158 millimetres of rainfall at Saidpur and 123mm at Zero Point.

The rain exposed flaws in the capital’s road engineering work, as almost all of the roads in the city had accumulated water.

“Traffic was severely congested. This rainy spell exposed faulty engineering. Because of rainwater on the roads, I reached Secretariat in Islamabad from 6th Road in an hour and a half. Normally, I cover this distance in 15 minutes,” Rawalpindi resident Inam Ali told Dawn.

Another citizen, Kamran Khan, said the area between Faizabad and 6th Road was the worst-affected.

He said it took him more than an hour to get to Zero Point from Double Road, Rawalpindi.

“Since there was so much rainwater at Faizabad, traffic was diverted from Shamsabad towards Double Road so there was traffic congestion. We faced a lot of water again after reaching 9th Avenue,” he said.

Although 9th Avenue sees water accumulation every monsoon, the Capital Development Authority has not fixed the faults in engineering. Rainwater also accumulated in underground metro stations, particularly in the one on 9th Avenue.

CDA and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) teams drained water from 9th Avenue, the western side of the I-8 interchange, Faizabad interchange, the Ministers’ Enclave and other parts of the city.

Houses in PWD Colony were flooded, prompting visits from rescue officials from the MCI’s emergency and disaster management directorate.

Emergency and Disaster Management Director Zafar Iqbal said they pumped water out of many houses in PWD.

He said the directorate responded to more than a dozen calls from citizens asking for water to be removed from their homes.

He said officials conducted a dewatering operation at Faizabad to clear the road.

Sources said there was no proper coordination between the MCI and the CDA, as the road drainage system had not been cleared out before the monsoon.

However, sources said that the CDA’s engineering wing swung into action on Thursday, with Director General Works Ayaz Khan visiting several roads to remove accumulated rainwater.

A statement issued by the CDA said the CDA management tasked the director general works with supervising the drainage of water resulting from spells of rain. It said the director general has been directed to ensure water is drained immediately during and after monsoon rainfall.

“In line with the instructions of the CDA management, roads directorate (north), road directorate (south), markets and road maintenance directorate and other concerned formations of the authority along with other concerned departments remained busy in draining water accumulated due to heavy rain fall on Wednesday night,” it said.

It said the director general works visited various areas in the city and deputed staff where needed.

The CDA management has ordered the director general works to coordinate with the MCI for the immediate removal of wild shrubs and the trimming of grass, especially along the road drainage system, that is affecting the drainage of rainwater.

The concerned officers have been directed to coordinate with the sanitation directorate to take immediate measures for the removal of solid waste, construction waste and soil on the sides of nullahs so rainwater and flow smoothly.

The statement said that the CDA management has directed the concerned formations to ensure all manholes around the city are covered and effective measures are taken to drain rainwater.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2019