With or without electricity, people suffer as KESC unable to address faults
Rains cause a myriad of problems in Karachi: flooding, electricity cut-offs, limited mobility.
KARACHI:
In the heavy rainfall, overhead electric cables fell across the city. However, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) teams have not yet attended to these complaints - they say it is too risky to fix the cables while it is still raining. Their solution to the problem was to trip the feeders in these areas.
KESC has 1,200 electricity feeders in Karachi. At different points in the last three days, 500 of them tripped. On Tuesday, 107 feeders tripped in all four districts of the city. The number of electricity feeders that were not fixed till the filing of this report was 93.
They included 45 feeders in Orangi, Baldia, Patel Para, Lasbella, Guru Mandir, Rizvia Society, Enquiry Office, Paposh Nagar. There were problems with 26 feeders in Saddar, Preedy Street, Regal, Garden East, Choona depot Bohra Pir, Ramswamy, Narainpura and DHA.
The City District Government Karachi (CDGK) Municipal Services Group of Office’s executive district officer (EDO), Masood Alam, said that district South was the most rain-affected part of the city. He explained that the draining was underway but there are problems which the authorities cannot overcome.
Encroachments and silting has reduced the drains to 15% to 20% of their size. “It takes two to three hours to flush water from the streets once the rainfall ends and this problem will continue till the encroachments on top of the drains are removed.”
Eleven spots in the south district were declared ‘vulnerable’. Every rainy season, manual and mechanical efforts are made to remove accumulated water from these areas, especially from around Aiwan-e Saddar Road, in the red zone and Civil Lines.
“If the encroachments on the drains continue to exist and the rainwater drains are not restored to their original shape, then citizens will face even more problems next year,” said the DCO while speaking to the media Tuesday.
The DCO said that a major drain near the Sindh Assembly had been encroached on. The people living in the vicinity broke the walls of the drain in order to flush rainwater out from their houses. Hence the entire area, starting from the Arts Council Roundabout to Governor House and Chief Minister House, was flooded. “I am personally overlooking the drainage works in this area,” said the DCO.
The CDGK started draining rainwater in January and all the major drains were cleaned during the campaign. However, the rainfall was heavier than expected which is why the city is still flooded. Earlier, the DCO along with Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s (KWSB) managing director, Misbahuddin Farid, CDGK Municipal Services Group of Offices executive district officer (EDO) Masood Alam, Works and Services EDO Altaf G Memon and other officials inspected the condition of major drains in the low-lying areas of Mehmoodabad, Railway Colony, Saddar, M A Jinnah Road and Shahrah-e Faisal.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2011.
In the heavy rainfall, overhead electric cables fell across the city. However, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) teams have not yet attended to these complaints - they say it is too risky to fix the cables while it is still raining. Their solution to the problem was to trip the feeders in these areas.
KESC has 1,200 electricity feeders in Karachi. At different points in the last three days, 500 of them tripped. On Tuesday, 107 feeders tripped in all four districts of the city. The number of electricity feeders that were not fixed till the filing of this report was 93.
They included 45 feeders in Orangi, Baldia, Patel Para, Lasbella, Guru Mandir, Rizvia Society, Enquiry Office, Paposh Nagar. There were problems with 26 feeders in Saddar, Preedy Street, Regal, Garden East, Choona depot Bohra Pir, Ramswamy, Narainpura and DHA.
The City District Government Karachi (CDGK) Municipal Services Group of Office’s executive district officer (EDO), Masood Alam, said that district South was the most rain-affected part of the city. He explained that the draining was underway but there are problems which the authorities cannot overcome.
Encroachments and silting has reduced the drains to 15% to 20% of their size. “It takes two to three hours to flush water from the streets once the rainfall ends and this problem will continue till the encroachments on top of the drains are removed.”
Eleven spots in the south district were declared ‘vulnerable’. Every rainy season, manual and mechanical efforts are made to remove accumulated water from these areas, especially from around Aiwan-e Saddar Road, in the red zone and Civil Lines.
“If the encroachments on the drains continue to exist and the rainwater drains are not restored to their original shape, then citizens will face even more problems next year,” said the DCO while speaking to the media Tuesday.
The DCO said that a major drain near the Sindh Assembly had been encroached on. The people living in the vicinity broke the walls of the drain in order to flush rainwater out from their houses. Hence the entire area, starting from the Arts Council Roundabout to Governor House and Chief Minister House, was flooded. “I am personally overlooking the drainage works in this area,” said the DCO.
The CDGK started draining rainwater in January and all the major drains were cleaned during the campaign. However, the rainfall was heavier than expected which is why the city is still flooded. Earlier, the DCO along with Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s (KWSB) managing director, Misbahuddin Farid, CDGK Municipal Services Group of Offices executive district officer (EDO) Masood Alam, Works and Services EDO Altaf G Memon and other officials inspected the condition of major drains in the low-lying areas of Mehmoodabad, Railway Colony, Saddar, M A Jinnah Road and Shahrah-e Faisal.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2011.