Monsoon flooding back to irk Lahore’s residents

Monsoon downpours have wreaked havoc in Sindh and Balochistan this season, with many losing their lives, now residents of Punjab particularly those of North Lahore fear that if drainage systems are not cleaned, a similar fate awaits them.

For some like Mohammad Fayyaz the monsoon rains spell trouble for his humble abode, in the Gujjar Pura China Scheme area of North Lahore, as it will become vulnerable to being flooded. Fayyaz is now hoping beyond hope his property is spared the destruction it has been accustomed to.

While talking to the Express Tribune, Fayyaz remarked that the authorities did not pay attention because this was a “backward area of Lahore.” Describing the ordeal he has been through in the past years, Fayyaz said that the water accumulates in the area for days on end but no one has bothered to fix the water drainage. “There is a disposal pump of the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) near here but our situation has been the same for several years,” Fayyaz lamented.

Apart from Gujjar Pura China Scheme, there are many areas including Taj Bagh, Azam Garden, Walton, Laxmi Chowk, Bhati Chowk, Sheranwala Gate, and Rashid Park, where excessive rain is a nuisance for hundreds of other families. Shumaila Imtiaz, a resident of Taj Bagh, like Fayyaz, was irked by the fact that the local authorities never paid attention to their plight. “Every time it rains, water accumulates in our area. The house has already filled with water from the recent rains,” Imtiaz informed despondently, “we have installed a 6-inch-high barrier in front of the door but the storm penetrates the home whenever a car passes down the street while it is raining, damaging the carpets and furniture.”

Similarly, a resident of New Choburi, Muhammad Ibrahim, informed that sewage infrastructure in his area had not been rectified despite several protests and appeals to higher authorities. Ibrahim was of the view that the situation was challenging, especially for his children, who are forced to confine themselves at home. While Ibrahim is concerned for his children, another resident from Tezab Ahata, told The Express Tribune, that guests do not visit his house in the rainy season because of the foul odour the stillwater causes. “Many individuals have left the area because they could not live in the stench during every monsoon season.”As WASA is responsible for 6 city-wide drains which are 76 kilometres long, the Express Tribune asked its Managing Director, Ghufran Ahmed, what they were doing to address the plight of residents, to which he replied: “Emergency camps have been set up at 26 places in Lahore, while pumps are active to remove rainwater from 29 underpasses in a timely fashion. Furthermore, all disposal stations are being run according to capacity.” However, monsoons wreak havoc every season and residents state that governments only react once the downpour starts.

Ahmed, acknowledging the shortcomings, informed that the government was working on a project to construct underground water storage at eleven locations in Lahore to conserve and reuse monsoon rainwater at a cost of Rs 2.5 billion. Syed Zahid Aziz, Chief Executive Officer of the project, which comes under the Punjab Water Park Authority, informed that the plan was to reuse Lahore’s rainfall, amounting to 20 million gallons of water. When asked if this promise was like other promises governments had made in the past, Aziz said, “the first underground storage project for rainwater has been successfully completed at Lahore’s Lawrence Road, where we are collecting 1.5 million gallons of water under a tennis court. Two more projects have been completed in the inner Lahore area near Kashmir Road and Sheranwala Gate.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2022.