RAWALPINDI: The divisional administration swung into action in the mid-monsoon season and shifted the cleanliness task of roadside drains from Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) to the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

Wasa already had to remove obstacles from 11 nullahs along with Leh Nullah and now it has to fulfill the new task of cleaning roadside drains with its limited human resources.

A senior official of the administration told Dawn that Wasa was established in 1998 to look after water supply and sewerage system in the garrison city and the RMC was responsible for garbage collection and cleanliness of drains and nullahs.

He said after the establishment of Rawalpindi Waste Management Company (RWMC) in 2014, RMC handed over garbage collection and cleanliness of 11 big nullahs to the company.

Officials says Leh Nullah, 11 other nullahs already cleaned; now entrusted with roadside drains as well

After handing over of its three major functions, the RMC would construct roads, streets, approve building plans and maintain streetlights and remove encroachments.

A senior Wasa official told Dawn that the work of the agency had increased as it cleaned Leh Nullah, then 11 other nullahs and now was handed over roadside drains as well.

“Though the agency accepted the task, it is the responsibility of RMC or RWMC to clean the 11 nullahs and roadside drains,” he said.

“Since 2009, desilting of Leh Nullah at vulnerable points and bridge-abutments clearance has been carried out by Wasa with the assistance of the government of Punjab either through Annual Development Programme (ADP) or supplementary grants,” he said.

However, Wasa Rawalpindi never maintained tributaries of Leh Nullah since its establishment. These drains were earlier maintained and desilted by the Municipal Services Wing of the City District Government. After its devolution, the RWMC/RMC had been maintaining all drains, including tributaries of Leh Nullah, since 2015.

He said that last year Wasa Rawalpindi was assigned the task to carry out desilting of tributaries of Leh Nullah on immediate basis. In this regard, Local Government and Community Development Department asked Wasa to take up desilting of the tributaries of Leh Nullah.

This year, he said, the Punjab government asked Wasa to carry out a detailed physical survey for desilting of all nullahs/storm water drains in preparation for monsoon and the estimated cost was about Rs70 million.

He said Wasa had limited human resources and there was no data on roadside drains available to manage them during the monsoon season. “We started a survey of the city as a first step,” he said.

When contacted, Wasa Managing Director Saleem Ashraf said that the new task had been assigned to Wasa to clean the roadside drains.

“We started the work and asked the RMC to provide details of roadside drains,” he said.

He said Wasa was only responsible for the sewerage system and water supply in the garrison city and it got three additional works - cleanliness of Leh Nullah, 11 big nullahs and now roadside drains.

On the other hand, RMC Chief Municipal Officer Imran Ali said cleanliness of drains and sanitation functions had been handed over to Wasa and RWMC in the past years after creation of these agencies.

“We never cleaned nullahs in last many years as it were being maintained by RWMC and Wasa since 2015,” he said and added that the divisional administration just cleared the confusion that Wasa will clean roadside drains.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2024