LAHORE: The City District Government of Lahore (CDGL) has issued flood warning notices to all illegal occupants living along banks of the River Ravi in view of the monsoon rains.

Officials say though there is no imminent danger of flood, the issuance of notices to these people was mandatory under the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) devised by CDGL’s departments concerned.

“We had held a special meeting on monsoon, its possible impact, flood and accumulation of rainwater on city roads a couple of days back. A representative of the irrigation department briefed us in the meeting that the water level in rivers of the region has been gradually on downside for the last 14 years,” Lahore DCO retired Captain Muhammad Usman told Dawn on Monday.

According to the year-wise flood data (1983 to 2013), the 1988 and 1995 were the years when the people of Lahore faced massive floods (flow of 467,000 and 329,103 cusecs of water, respectively) in Ravi due to peak discharge below Modupur.

“In 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, Ravi had a flood of 82,400 cusecs, 33850, 87800, 95,600, 9,536, 476,000, 109,800, 76,001, 57,000, 76,001, 135,001, 150,001, 329,103, 132,001, 117,501, 50,501, 2,000, 6,000, 15,200, 6,100, 5,700, 8,000, 19,000, 14,100, 17,100, 1,200 and 23,800 cusecs, respectively,” the official data prepared by the Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Waters reads.

However, there was not a single cusec of water recorded in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2009, according to the document.The DCO said the CDGL, Civil Defence, Irrigation and other departments concerned had completed all arrangements as precautionary measures.

LWSC: The Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan has registered the Lahore Water and Sanitation Company.

According to officials, the LWSC, a subsidiary of the Punjab government, will soon have an office at Egerton Road where it will initially be governed by a managing director.

They say former Wasa MD Dr Javaid Iqbal is also interested in becoming the MD of the new company, which will be given three major localities of the city to run the operational affairs there instead of Wasa.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2014