JHANG: The recent rains have once again exposed the obsolete sewerage system of Jhang Saddar and city many streets of which remain submerged with water and the sewage also plagues the houses making life miserable for the citizens.

The sewerage lines were first laid in Jhang in 1978 and these were not upgraded with the huge rise in the city population. In the next decades a large number of people moved to the city and its population exponentially rose.

The civic authorities failed to live up to public expectations and provide them with an adequate sewerage system. At present, the Municipal Corporation has only 300 sanitary workers at its disposal against the requirement of 2,000.

The district government started work to replace the rickety sewerage system of the city a few years ago and Nespak was assigned to make an assessment of the expenditure.

Nespak in its report stated that Rs5 billion was required to upgrade and modernise the system. In view of the huge amount involved, the authorities decided to complete the project in three phases.

In the first phase, it was decided to lay the sewerage lines at a cost of approximately Rs1 million but the grant allocated by the government during the current fiscal year is too meager to even start the work.

Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Tahir Watto says the sewerage system of the city has five times less capacity then what is required and this is the reason stinking water stagnates the city roads.

PROTEST: Relatives of a deceased on Wednesday staged a demonstration in front of the DHQ hospital emergency gate and blocked the traffic for more than two hours to register their protest against alleged negligence of a doctor and other staff.

Muhammad Anwar, 50, was brought to the emergency unit with symptoms of heart attack. His relatives immediately demanded that the patient be put on oxygen as he was experiencing breathing problems.

The emergency authorities turned a deaf ear to the appeals of the relatives and the patient expired before the oxygen could be arranged.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2020