LAHORE: Heavy rain lashed Lahore and caused massive inconvenience for the public as the motorists remained stuck at various spots allegedly due to delay by the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) in draining out the rainwater.

On the other hand, Wasa said Samanabad remained on top among the areas that received heavy rain in the city on Tuesday.

According to a report compiled by Wasa, Samanabad received 46.2mm rain followed by Iqbal Town that received 45.6mm, Farrukahabad 44.4mm, Gulberg 42.6mm and Chowk Nakhuda 42.4. The city received 33.8mm rain on average, the report says.

Wasa said that the efforts were made fast to drain out the rainwater at the earliest.

“The entire underpass is filled with rainwater and no one from Wasa has reached here to drain it out,” deplored a motorist while talking to Dawn on Jail Road underpass on the Canal Road where the traffic was moving dead slow due to massive rainwater accumulation.

The city of Lahore has been facing severe rainwater drainage and sewerage related issues since long despite the fact the government has spent billions of rupees on the infrastructure upgrade. Though there is little improvement, the city still faces many issues in this regard.

“I wonder where the money is going, whether it is being spent on infrastructure or going in the pockets of officers. Here, Wasa, despite spending huge money, couldn’t succeed to get the issue of water accumulation resolved,” criticised a resident of Johar Town near the Tikka Khan Chowk. “The government must constitute a special team to carry out a performance audit of Wasa and development schemes,” he demanded.

Talking to Dawn, Wasa Deputy Managing Director (Operations) Muhammad Latif said though there were some issues, the teams made all-out efforts for early drainage of the accumulated rainwater.

“We have almost (till 8.15pm) cleared all areas/sore points of the city. But I don’t know the situation exactly about the Jail Road underpass and other choking points on Canal Road.”

Mr Latif said the Tikka khan Chowk water accumulation problem was due to some technical/engineering issues that would be resolved soon.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2026