Citizens wary as officials brace for second spell of rain in Hyderabad

Traders and industrialists complain many roads are still submerged seven days after the downpour

HYDERABAD: As the citizens, traders and industrialists of Hyderabad continue to endure partial submersion and power outages after the July 29 rainfall, civic agencies are bracing for the second spell of rain after failing to deal with the first. The acting commissioner of Hyderabad division, Abdul Waheed Shaikh, called officials of all the relevant departments for a meeting in his office on Sunday to inform that the second five-day spell will be starting from August 8.

The rains are likely to continue till the eve of Eidul Azha, according to the latest forecast of Pakistan Meteorological Department. "The officials should form a strategy to deal with the rain to prevent any harm to life and assets of the people," said the commissioner in a clichéd statement.

Shaikh asked the Hyderabad Development Authority, Water and Sanitation Agency, Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Qasimabad Municipal Committee to pump out rainwater from the localities within three days. HDA Director General Ghulam Muhammad Qaimkhani had earlier assured that all the localities will be cleared of rainwater by Saturday, August 3. However, the commissioner's directives with the deadline make it evident that the HDA and its subsidiary WASA failed to attain the objective by Saturday.

The commissioner formed three teams during the meeting to inspect the WASA's pumping stations and nullahs and address the technical faults which have been occurring in the drainage system. According to HESCO's official sources, the complaints of 50 to 60 damaged transformers in Hyderabad remain unaddressed, even seven days after the rainfall.

The consumers have been given the hope that they would be issued new transformers in place of their damaged ones. "We will convey the complaints against HESCO to the federal government and hold the officials accountable," said Sadaqat Ali Jatoi, vice-president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Sindh chapter at a press conference at Hyderabad Press Club on Sunday. "The HESCO has been kept hostage. A cabal is taking extortion from the people to supply them with electricity," he alleged.

Jatoi said both the federal and provincial departments are responsible for inundating Hyderabad in the rainwater. He blamed the Pakistan Peoples Party's Sindh government for corruption and bad governance. "Whatever [infrastructure] projects they built have failed due to poor quality of material and work. Karachi and Hyderabad going under water have proved it."

The Hyderabad Chamber of Small Trade and Industry on Sunday complained that the Hyderabad SITE remained submerged six days after the rain. "All the roads, intersections and factories [in the SITE area] are still under water due to utter negligence and callousness of Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate and WASA," said the chamber's president, Muhammad Farooq Shaikhani, in a statement. According to him, the inundation has affected work in the industries. He pointed out that the design fault in the drainage system of under-construction Hyderabad-Badin road, which starts from Fateh Chowk and passes along the SITE area in Hyderabad, has further complicated the SITE's drainage.

Hyderabad received 188-millimeter rain in around 16 hours on July 29.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2019.