ISLAMABAD: Last week, I travelled to my home district of Larkana in Sindh, where I found that all the roads and streets, both, inside the city of Larkana and outside it were in a dilapidated state. The construction of roads and streets in Larkana was initiated some three years ago but so far, not a single road has been completed. The handling of the construction material and waste disposal activities, like dumping gravel, sand and excavated materials on the side of the roads has clogged the drainage inlet system, resulting in flooding of roads and causing considerable inconvenience to the public, as well as resulting in economic losses for the district.
Road drainage problems are also partly caused by poorly designed drainage systems. Due to lack of proper maintenance of the city’s drainage systems, their water-carrying capacities have reduced considerably. The drainage systems have also been used to dump garbage and dispose of sewage. One can see this at the famous Lahori Mohalla, which is the constituency of Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, speaker of the Sindh Assembly, and the surroundings of the historic al Murtaza House of the Bhuttos.
Furthermore, the reduction in the size of the channel, due to dumping of garbage has also reduced the discharge capacity of the local watercourses causing backwater flooding. Due to the absence of regular cleaning and desilting, the drainage channels have been filled up to a considerable depth, rendering acute flooding problem for the roads in the adjoining areas.
For a city like Larkana, a drainage master plan along with a drainage policy guideline is required to protect the city’s infrastructure from completely disintegrating. A lack of clear policy to prosecute those who illegally dump garbage into the drainage system is also an impediment.
Since the streets and roads in Larkana are in a precarious condition, the question is: Where is the huge amount totalling Rs20 billion that was allocated under the much–touted Prime Minister’s Larkana Development Package? Is there anyone in the corridors of power who will take notice of the misuse of billions of rupees?
Hashim Abro
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2012.
