Even generally lighter spells of rain this year have flooded many areas of Karachi and the authorities are helpless and unable to avoid sufferings of a large number of people due to overflowing sewers and lack of drainage channels.

Thus, the entire drainage system is generally ill-planned and greatly undersized and unable to handle the required flow to “treatment plants”, which in most cases means allowing the drains to flow into the sea!

Just to give an example, there used to be a small petrol pump in KDA Scheme No. 1 (the only such facility in KDA-1) which was broken down and replaced with high-rise 11-storeyed commercial/apartment building, with the same sewerage connection/piping! How could this be allowed by the authorities? The result is that the drain gets choked often and one can see the manual “desi” interventions on Miran Mohammad Shah Road, with broken manholes and serious road settlement, causing great nuisance and dangerous conditions for the driving public.

(To be continued)

Engr. Ainul Abedin (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021