HYDERABAD, Sept 13: The inundation of rainwater in many parts of the city speaks volume of the inefficiency and in-competency of Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) despite the towering claims of its managing director to drain it out within 12 hours.
Wasa Managing Director Shafiq Arian had early on Tuesday claimed to drain out water which began accumulating since Monday evening. The downpour began on Monday and continued from 4-7pm and again from 8pm to 6am the following day. It was at 7.45am when the Dawn correspondent enquired from the Wasa MD as to how the water would be drained out.
He said in reply that the agency was working normally and water would be drained out as the rainfall had stopped now. The rain recorded from 5pm Monday to 8am Tuesday was 153mm.
The Qasimabad, Latifabad and City talukas are totally dependent on Wasa even though open drains are present in these areas. Tuesday was a bright sunny day but it reminded the 2006 scenario when law enforcers had to rescue people in boats.
However, the old city areas being located on hills didn’t face any such problems.
Many marooned residents preferred shifting to other places while majority remained busy in draining out water but succeeded a little because of the runoff.
People had to wade through the rainwater to reach their residences as vehicular traffic on both tracks of the Fatima Jinnah (Thandi Sarak) Road remained suspended.
The worst affected areas were Qasiambad like Faraz Villas, Faraz Villas Phase-II, Nasim Nagar, Abdullah bungalows-I and II, Sheedi Goth, Naseem Deluxe, Ali Nagar and Doomrah Goth remained cut off with the rest of Qasimabad. A similar scene prevailed in Unit-2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 5 and 4 because of below-the-capacity working of Wasa’s pumping stations.
The unnecessary delay in completion of ongoing sewerage work also played havoc. People themselves opened the manhole to clear water from the Sheedi Goth Road, said Ali Hassan Jatoi.
The contractor, he said, didn’t connect the mainline with the Qasimabad pumping station.
A former UC nazim Mehboob Abro said the entire Qasimabad had sunken but the TMA and Wasa were nowhere to be found. People needed evacuation but no help was reaching them. The sewerage work too, was adding to our miseries, he said.
Similar conditions ruled the Hali Road as only a small machine was pumping out water from there. The fate of generators installed by the outgoing district government for emergencies remained obscured.
Miseries shrouded the rural taluka due to caving in of several katcha houses in Husri and other areas while standing crops were submerged and people opted shifting to safer abodes.
The daily forecast by the National Disaster Management Authority and September 2006 experience could not move Wasa to make advance preparations.
The present crisis is beyond comprehension given the development works carried out in drainage sector under the Hyderabad Development Package.
Both, director general of the HDA and Managing Director of Wasa are inaccessible ever-since the rain hit the city. —Staff Correspondent
