The rainy season is around the corner, but the Water and Sanitation Agency, Hyderabad has yet not been released Rs326 million by the Sindh government needed to meet rain emergency situations. A WASA official feared that in all probability the required funds would not be made available before the start of rains. This is highly surprising that the provincial government has not learnt any lessons from previous years’ experience in the wake of heavy rains and how people paid the price of years of official neglect. The consequences of the last year’s floods were dreadful. The sad memories of those floods are still fresh for the sufferers and all those who witnessed the large-scale devastations caused by the deluge. Amazingly, that tragedy has failed to move the Sindh government to act before another such catastrophe strikes, as the inordinate delay in releasing the needed funds to WASA Hyderabad shows. If the funds are not provided to the agency to tackle the situation arising out of another bout of heavy rains this year, it might result in a repetition of the 2020 calamity.
It does not take much intelligence to visualise the scenario if there is another devastating episode of the kind. The complacency on the part of the authorities is fuelling fears that the province might witness another heart-breaking tragedy. WASA officials have repeatedly been seeking the needed funds since June. So far all these requests and entreaties have not been responded to. WASA is facing severe financial constraints as a result of mounting dues outstanding against a large number of government departments. The agency claims that the Sindh Building Control Authority has okayed 24 commercial building projects in Hyderabad without obtaining the mandatory No-Objection Certificate from it. If the funds needed by WASA are released after the arrival of rains, they would not be of much use. If money is spent in haste, most of it goes to waste. It is no use closing the stable gate after the horse has bolted.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2021.
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