Rain exposes Rawalpindi's drainage system

Many roads in garrison city inundated

RAWALPINDI:

The heavy spell of monsoon rain on Sunday exposed poor drainage system in Rawalpindi as several roads were submerged under rain water.

At least 38 milimetres (mm) downpour was recorded in the garrison city. Technical flaws in the construction of the major roads including poorly designed outlet ditches and multiple low grounds, left them inundated with rain water. The highways including Murree Road, Liaquat Road, Saddar City Road, Jamia Masjid Road, Fifth Road, Commercial Market, Satellite Town, Sadiqabad, Misriyal Road Ghaffar Kayani Road, Siham Road, Westridge, Peshawar Road, and others were converted into ponds. Owing to this, hours-long traffic snarl-ups appeared in various areas of the city.

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Further, rainwater, mixed with sewerage water, flowed inside the shops in different markets including Raja bazaar and Ganj Mandi. The shopkeepers faced extreme difficulties as the inventory worth millions of rupees was damaged. The WASA Managing Director (MD) Shaukat Mehmood confirmed that the flooding of roads was caused by the poor drainage system that must have been kept in view while constructing them. He declared it as an engineering fault.

Mehmood added that the roads would not transform into ponds if the roads were properly planned and designed. He emphasised that a proper project was required to redevelop the roads to avoid post-rains flooding in future.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2020.