KARACHI, Jan 25: About 50 per cent houses of Sindhi Para, Shanti Nagar, Union Council No 7, Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town were flooded with sewage as the filthy water gushed back to the bathrooms due to choked gutters with the start of thunderstorm that lashed the city early Tuesday morning.

"Although this locality is a low-lying area, it never happened that any of the houses came under sewerage water. This is the first time that the filthy water has gushed back into the houses mainly due to criminal negligence of concerned nazims," Engineer Iftikhar Qazi, Shanti Nagar Welfare Association's President said.

He claimed that the residents of Sindhi Para had been managing the sewerage system at their own and a few years back the sewerage lines were laid on self-help basis. It was stated that the town and union nazims had approved a contract of laying sewerage lines in other localities of Shanti Nagar last year and ordered to connect it with the sewerage lines of Sindhi Para without even consulting with the residents and the association.

The residents of Sindhi Para had raised objections that the sewerage system in their locality was purely a private property of their own and the system might get choked as it had no capacity to cope with such a huge pressure of other localities.

In second half of last year, a new contract of laying sewerage lines in some other localities was given to a contractor under the MNA's Fund. The contractor, an employee of city government, allegedly connected the new lines with the existing system of Sindhi Para.

"Since then the life of people of this locality became miserable as the choking of entire system and gushing of sewage water back to houses has become a routine," Qazi Iftikhar said.

The residents have to arrange the sweepers for cleaning of gutters at their own, as the officials of town and union council administrations and even the Karachi Water and Sewerage Department say that they are not responsible to look after the sewerage system.

"Tuesday's rain has exposed the ill-planning and criminal negligence of authorities as the streets and homes of half of Sindhi Para were inundated by filthy water," Mr Iftikhar said. -PPI