Municipal corporations directed to clean storm water drains

The Gujjar nullah is to be channelised, resolving the city’s drainage problem


Our Correspondent July 29, 2015
The city administration has taken up the task to clean storm water drains that fall in its jurisdiction. Storm water drains are not meant to carry sewage but, mostly, waste material from toilets finds its way to them. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, who has been given the additional charge of the Karachi administrator, has directed all district municipal corporations to ensure the cleanliness of the drains that fall within their jurisdictions. The KMC, meanwhile, will monitor the process and provide the necessary equipment and manpower to clean the drains.

It was pledged in the meeting that the cleanliness process would continue throughout the year. "Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), instead of diverting the rain water from the CAA to Sharae Faisal, will arrange for its drainage through Moria Khan nullah," said the statement issued by the KMC.

On the other hand, the KMC has started carrying out social and technical surveys of the major drains in the city on Monday. The municipal body plans to channelise the major storm water drains in the city that fall into the Lyari river.

The first phase of the survey of Gujjar nullah was conducted by a joint team of engineers and officers of the KMC and the Karachi Water and Sewage Board, (KWSB), according to the press statement released by KMC.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by the metropolitan commissioner Samiuddin Siddiqui. The government of Sindh has, for the first time, given this mandate to the KMC to carry out this work and then plan for the future, added the press release.

“The 200-foot wide nullah and 24 foot wide road will have to be constructed on both the sides of the 14 km-long drain at an estimated cost of Rs5.5billion," he said, adding that nearly 29,000 houses on the edges of the drain would be affected and an estimated Rs12.5billion would be required for their re-settlement. This would bring the total cost of the project to around Rs18billion.

Experts believe, however, that the process of channelisation of these drains will take at least three to four years.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th, 2015. 

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