LAHORE:
The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has cancelled the holidays of its staff members and formed a team to monitor their attendance from June 15 up to August 15 (official starting and ending dates for monsoon season).
As many as 2,000 workers have been assigned field duties on different spots across the city for the season. These duties will be extended in case the rains continue beyond the official closing date.
The standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the monsoon season require that the Wasa set up 24 operation and maintenance camps in the city.
These camps have been set up at Eik Moria Pul, Chowk Nakhuda, Bhati Gate, Tajpura Shadbagh, Multan Road disposal station, Scheme Mor, Poonch Road, Bhalla Stop on Multan Road, Al Hamd Colony, Shah Jamal, Sultan Ahmad Road Ichhra, General Hospital, Usman Block in Garden Town, Hussain Chowk in Gulburg, Garhi Shahu, Empress Road, Railway Station, Do-Moria Pul, Zahoor Elahi Road, Lakshmi Chowk, Bagheechi Saithan on GT Road, Shalimar Link Road, Baghbanpura and B-Block of Tajpura Scheme.
Besides, the Wasa has set up 15 camps near major drains to ensure that rain water is drained quickly and does not flood the surrounding areas.
These camps are located at Lakshmi Chowk, GPO Chowk, Kashmir Road, Ravi Pumping Station, Rasul Park, Dubai Chowk, Shalimar flyover, Sheranwala Gate, Lytton Road, AG Office, SOS Village, Firdous Market, Plaza Cinema, Lawrance Road and Qurtaba Chowk.
The Wasa has installed suction machines at 26 spots to pump out water from low-lying areas of the city. It has identified 70 low-lying areas in the city – 19 locations in Ravi Town, 22 in Shalimar and Aziz Bhatti Towns, seven in Data Gunj Bakhsh Town, five in Allama Iqbal Town and two in Nishtar Town.
Power generators have been arranged for all disposal stations to ensure that the dewatering process is not affected due to outages. Twelve generators have been installed in Ravi Town, 22 in Data Gunj Bakhsh Town, seven in Nishtar Town, six in Aziz Bhatti Town and nine in Allama Iqbal Town.
The agency has established 32 complaint centres across the city. The sub-divisional officers concerned will be in charge of these centres.
The main control room set up in the Wasa head office will be supervised by the Wasa managing director. Each Town Municipal Administration (TMA) will have a control room as well.
These control rooms will be have representatives of the TMA, the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department, the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA), the Traffic Police and the Lahore Electric Supply C0ompany (LESCO).
The Wasa deputy managing director (engineering) will ensure that all disposal stations are functioning. In case repairs are required he will inform the deputy managing director (operations and maintenance).
Published in The Express Tribune, June 23rd, 2011.
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