KARACHI: The groundbreaking ceremony for the Storm Water Drain project, a system that would keep Defence Housing Authority (DHA) afloat in any heavy monsoon season took place at the Farhan Shaheed Park in DHA Phase-8 here on Friday.

According to a DHA spokesperson, after the heavy rains of 2020, it was realised that the solution to the problem of flooding had to be a storm water drain through which the rainwater can be channeled out to the sea.

“Earlier, when the drains were built in 2009, only their initial phase could be completed. Work started on the second phase after the heavy rains of 2020. We started the work by bringing in the army survey engineers for a hydro-graphic profile of DHA, which showed us the high and the low-lying areas here. This was followed by DHA’s hiring the consultants who could design the drains. For this DHA brought in Zeeruk International Pvt Ltd, who readied a design in six to seven months,” the spokesperson informed.

“To have that design validated, DHA brought in a third-party, National Engineering Services Pakistan [NESPAK], and their observations were then rectified by Zeeruk. Some NED University observations about the design were also settled and the final design was prepared using best engineering practices while keeping in view Karachi’s 100-year rain records. It will be four-times the capacity of the former DHA drains,” the spokesperson added.

“The design caters to all scenarios such as high tide and the Mahmoodabad drains that receive the entire city’s drainage. The contact for the construction has been awarded to the National Logistics Cell [NLC] who are expected to complete work within 15 months.

“The design is of a 74km long drains with 18km of main drains along with interceptors and connectors that will all be under the roads with their water collectors by the side of the roads,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2022