PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: Days after a sinkhole was formed on Club Road due to the collapse of a sewerage line, a portion of Ziauddin Ahmed Road too caved in on Wednesday. Consequently, the road was blocked for traffic and alternative routes were announced by the traffic police. Meanwhile, even as the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board officials made frantic efforts to fix the problem, senior officials pointed to a dilapidated sewerage network, saying such incidents had become all too common because much of the network had outlived its practical life.
Traffic chaos
On Wednesday, traffic moving towards PIDC Chowk from Lilly Bridge is being diverted towards Cantt Station, vehicles approaching Shaheen Complex from PIDC Chowk are being diverted towards Sultanabad and traffic moving towards PIDC Chowk from MT Khan Road is being diverted towards Mai Kolachi Road.
The mishap has added to the commuters' inconvenience in Karachi, who were already troubled after Club Road was blocked for traffic as repair work pertaining to the replacement of the collapsed sewerage line beneath its track continued. In the aftermath of the incident, traffic flow was disrupted on Shahrah-e-Faisal, Aiwan-e-Saddar Road and Fatima Jinnah Road, as well as near Fawwara Chowk and surrounding areas, resulting in traffic jams. According to a traffic police official, the road was flooded by sewerage water.
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Meanwhile, the Karachi Water and Sewerage claimed to have installed the new sewerage line at Club Road, after which the sewerage water that had accumulated in different parts of Saddar had started to subside. According to a statement, the KWSB managing director Asadullah Khan had dispatched four suction vehicles to different parts of Saddar to clear the sewerage water. The statement added that Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah has directed that all the roads of Saddar should be cleared of sewerage water by today.
Why are the roads sinking?
According to Karachi Water and Sewerage Board officials, who spoke to The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity, Karachi's sewerage system has almost choked in all districts as a result of constructing high-rise buildings without proper planning and absence of a mechanism to clean the sewers and rainwater drains.
The KWSB's sewerage lines are linked with the rainwater drains in the city, with the latter spilling into the Lyari and Malir rivers, through which the sewerage water flows into the sea.
Over the years, one KWSB official explained, the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has allowed the construction of countless high-rise buildings across the city without proper planning while the utility systems in every part of the city lack up-gradation. The worst affected are the Old City areas, where the sewerage lines are over half a century old.
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According to the official, the KWSB's district offices don't even have enough cranes and suction machines to clean the drains and sewers on time. The collapse of sewerage lines is quite common these days as the sewerage lines in all districts, especially District South, have outlived their practical life and the whole sewerage system is crumbling.
Disaster in the making
According to another KWSB official, the lids of manholes in many areas are missing and citizens throw solid waste into the gutters, causing them to choke. As a result, the gutters keep overflowing, causing potholes and craters to appear in the roads and leading to hours-long traffic jams.
The official lamented that the relevant officials of KWSB also lack interest, therefore the sewerage lines are not cleaned on time. "The institution doesn't have enough lids for the manholes and cranes for cleaning the sewers due to the rampant corruption in the contracts given to procure the same," said the official, adding that the lines haven't been properly cleaned for several years now.
Meanwhile, the rainwater drains are suffering the same fate as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and the District Municipal Corporations are not interested in cleaning them. "The drains have turned into garbage dumps," said the official.
What now?
An engineer associated with the KWSB, who also asked not to be named, told The Express Tribune that the whole sewerage system of Karachi requires a major overhaul. He added that the water board, in association with the World Bank, is working on the Karachi Water and Sewerage Service Improvement Project (KWSSIP). The project comprises four phases and its cost is estimated at a staggering $1.6 billion.
For now, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved the first phase of the project, which is worth $100 million. This phase, comprising 15 components, will be completed in four years. One of its components is the replacement of KWSB's sewerage lines. Overall, the first phase focuses on the repair work in the areas where the system is in the worst condition. The phase also covers the purchase of modern equipment to further strengthen the system.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2019.
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