HYDERABAD: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Wednesday all the departments concerned had been directed to send to him preparedness plans detailing their specific needs so that feared outfall from heavy rain could be handled in an effective manner.

In this regard, leaves of employees across the province had already been cancelled to meet rain emergency, said the chief minister while speaking to journalists after chairing a meeting of officers of different provincial departments at Shahbaz Hall.

He said that officials in Hyderabad had been directed to de-silt storm-water drains as they still had 48 hours before the next spell of rainfall hit the city. The departments of irrigation, works and services and public health engineering (PHE) had been asked to mobilise the machinery at their disposal and available with their contractors for cleaning uncovered drains in Hyderabad district, he said.

He said that law of Provincial Disaster Management Authority empowered the government to acquire all machinery from public and private sector if needed to meet an emergency.

He said that Hyderabad Electric Supply Company chief executive officer had been instructed to ensure that all the 19 feeders which supplied electricity to 55 pumping stations of Water and Sanitation Agency received uninterrupted electric supply.

The chief minister said that he had asked Wasa and Hesco to make sure standby generators remained ready in case of power breakdown and asked provincial departments to send their preparedness plans to him mentioning their needs and the government would ensure that their requirements were met.

Pumps and other machines should be installed in the vulnerable areas identified in recent rains, he said and promised that the government would discuss long-term plans of Wasa, Hyderabad Development Authority and Hyderabad Municipal Corporation later.

He said that with Eidul Azha round the corner disposal of hides and offal would be an issue and if heavy rains struck during the festival it might aggravate the problem. He would discuss other districts’ issues through video-conferencing from Karachi ahead of rains, he said.

Mr Shah expressed the hope that administration and departments as well as representatives of political parties including MQM and PPP would be on roads to redress peoples’ grievances during rains.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2019