Unclogging the streets: Shoro blames HESCO for slow drainage

More than 80% of rain-affected areas have been cleared, says LG minister

HYDERABAD: The provincial government, while taking credit for clearing over 80% rain affected areas in the city in less than two days, has blamed Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) for delay in the drainage of accumulated rainwater.

Local government minister Jam Khan Shoro, while talking to the media on Monday during a visit to the rain affected localities, assured that the remaining inundated areas will be cleared within a day.

Hyderabad received a downpour of 112 millimetres on August 6 and 52 millimetres on August 7, which left a large part of the city submerged due to the faulty drainage system and ill-planned urban expansion.

The power breakdowns caused by safety shut downs, tripping of feeders and faults in the transformers further aggravated the situation.

"If Hesco would have provided uninterrupted electricity, the rainwater would have been drained much earlier," claimed Shoro.

In a statement issued by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Monday, the party's district organiser Siraj Rajput and the elected MPAs accused the provincial government of leaving the affected people at the mercy of the local bureaucracy.

"Till today no relief camp has been established for people of the low-lying areas in Hyderabad [which drowned in the flash floods]," they claimed.

Hitting back at the criticism, Shoro recalled how boats had sailed in parts of Hyderabad for several days after the heavy rains in 2006 when the MQM's mayor headed the district administration. "The roads and streets in Latifabad and Hyderabad looked like streams and nullahs [back then]," he said.

Shoro was accompanied by Hyderabad commissioner Qazi Shahid Pervez and other government officials during a visit to the City, Latifabad and Qasimabad talukas.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2016.