LAHORE: A number of residents of Lahore’s Theme Park — the illegal housing scheme hit hardest in the recent flood — have resumed their routine life after the government drained the floodwater out from most its low-lying blocks.

However, the efforts to drain the water from some blocks of the scheme are still underway by the Lahore Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) on the orders of the Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department (HUD&PHED), Dawn has learnt, according to locals and some official sources.

“Fifty percent of the population (total 50,000 to 70,000) has resumed its routine activities,” says a local resident while speaking to Dawn.

“We are confident that the people living in 50pc of the total houses have resettled in their homes after the flood in Ravi submerged the Theme Park completely along with various other schemes situated near the Ravi riverbed,” the resident said when asked about details.

50pc of population, that had left the scheme in flood, has resumed routine activities

However, he added, “You can say that 25pc of the scheme’s part is still under water and the remaining 25pc is yet to be reinhabited because of the cleanliness”.

According to him, the scheme’s blocks, namely Ittehad, Ismael, Abu Hanzala, New Hassan, Ali, Panjtan and Khalid bin Waleed, are still under water.

“We complained about the cleanliness and other issues also in some blocks but no one bothered to reach here,” an official said.

To a question, he said, the 50pc shops on 80-feet road of the scheme had reopened as the routine business there had resumed finally.

Likewise, 50pc businesses on the road leading to Barkat Colony have resumed work. He said the block where the residents have resumed their businesses included Ittehad, New Abu Huraira, Abu Bakar, Talha, Hussian, Bilal and Dawood.

“It is just because these blocks were situated at some height than the rest.

On the other hand, Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza also paid a visit to Theme Park on Friday and monitored the ongoing water draining operations. During the briefing, the officials told him that the majority of Theme Park blocks had been cleared of the floodwater.

“The roads/passages leading to the residents’ houses must be cleaned,” DC Raza said while speaking on the occasion.

It is pertinent to mention that the floodwater in the River Ravi had entered Lahore’s various residential localities, including Theme Park, on Aug 27, inundating roads and damaging houses and infrastructure. However, the timely evacuation had saved the residents, as none of them was found stranded in the floodwater. The localities suffered due to flood included Shafiqabad, Farrakhabad and Tallat Park near Shahdara bridge and Theme Park, near Chuhng and Park View. The floodwater entered the urban localities of Lahore, after the river flows surged to 220,000.

Lahore’s Theme Park scheme is an illegal housing scheme where thousands of plots were carved out in the floodplain area of the Ravi. The scheme attracted a majority of poor people as the developers introduced an easy installment plan with permission for the construction of the house soon after payment of advance and one-month installment. Resultantly, a number of families, most illiterate ones, purchased plots (two to five marlas) and constructed houses.

Recently, a resident of Theme Park drowned after water level in the Ravi suddenly rose on Saturday morning, increasing the level of already accumulated floodwater in a couple of blocks and inundating streets of the locality again.

The recent floods affected 31 villages along the river, including Mohlanwal and Chuhng, where this scheme is located. A total of 82,952 people were affected by the floods in Lahore. While government-run relief and medical camps were established, numerous non-government organisations also set up camps, particularly near Chuhng and Mohlanwal, which have a large population from the Theme Park scheme and other low-lying areas. As many as 44,546 people and 13,621 animals were evacuated. There have been reports of one human casualty.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2025