Power and drainage: Hesco equipment worth Rs250m damaged
Four grid stations in Badin, Thatta, Tharparkar and Mirpurkhas shut down to keep them safe.
HYDERABAD:
Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) rebutted accusations that the power outage on Monday had delayed drainage from Latifabad and Qasimabad. Both areas were knee deep in water by Monday evening after 158 millimetres of rain fell.
“No official from the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Hyderabad Development Authority or district administration complained of load shedding in areas with WASA’s pumping stations,” said Muzaffar Abbassi, the chief executive officer of Hesco, at a press conference on Wednesday.
He stressed that the grid stations in these areas were almost under water but the staff kept them safe. WASA claimed to engage 500 staffers, 150 pumps, 30 mobile pumps and 10 tankers to remove the water and the pumps continued to drain water in Latifabad and Qasimabad on Wednesday as well.
“I acknowledge that there was load shedding in August, during the first spell of the monsoon, but not this time.”
According to Abbasi, the company suffered a loss of over Rs250 million in damages because its equipment was ruined. But these estimates are initial and the actual loss might be much greater, once the floodwater recedes, he said.
Hesco supplies electricity to 12 districts of Sindh - Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Thatta, Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Benazirabad, Sanghar, Umerkot, Tharparkar, Matiari and Mirpurkhas - through 68 grid stations. Four of its stations in Badin, Tharparkar, Thatta and Mirpurkhas districts have been shut down for safety reasons.
Drainage
Hyderabad’s two water treatment plants empty into the Indus River through three canals in the north of the city and into a ground called GCD - spread over a hundred acres - located between the City and Latifabad teshils.
Provincial fisheries minister Zahid Bhurgari had told WASA and SIDA to begin to reverse the flow from the Wadu Wah Canal on Tuesday. However, the orders were not carried out and water from the canal continued to spill into the GCD ground, threatening all areas along its six-kilometre route in the urban areas.
Drainage from Qasimabad tehsil, with an estimated population of around 350,000, falls in the GCD ground through Wadu Wah which is a fresh-water channel emerging from the Indus River and passing through Latifabad.
“The GCD ground has now filled to its capacity, so we decided to reverse the flow of Wadu Wah towards the Indus,” Bhurgari told The Express Tribune on Tuesday. An excavator is clearing silt from the canal. “We are doing our duty. WASA, the town municipal administration and the irrigation department also need to keep their drainage systems clear,” he said.
“We gave a 24 hours deadline to WASA to clear the affected areas,” said DCO Ahmed Baksh Narejo.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 15th, 2011.
Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) rebutted accusations that the power outage on Monday had delayed drainage from Latifabad and Qasimabad. Both areas were knee deep in water by Monday evening after 158 millimetres of rain fell.
“No official from the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Hyderabad Development Authority or district administration complained of load shedding in areas with WASA’s pumping stations,” said Muzaffar Abbassi, the chief executive officer of Hesco, at a press conference on Wednesday.
He stressed that the grid stations in these areas were almost under water but the staff kept them safe. WASA claimed to engage 500 staffers, 150 pumps, 30 mobile pumps and 10 tankers to remove the water and the pumps continued to drain water in Latifabad and Qasimabad on Wednesday as well.
“I acknowledge that there was load shedding in August, during the first spell of the monsoon, but not this time.”
According to Abbasi, the company suffered a loss of over Rs250 million in damages because its equipment was ruined. But these estimates are initial and the actual loss might be much greater, once the floodwater recedes, he said.
Hesco supplies electricity to 12 districts of Sindh - Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Thatta, Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Benazirabad, Sanghar, Umerkot, Tharparkar, Matiari and Mirpurkhas - through 68 grid stations. Four of its stations in Badin, Tharparkar, Thatta and Mirpurkhas districts have been shut down for safety reasons.
Drainage
Hyderabad’s two water treatment plants empty into the Indus River through three canals in the north of the city and into a ground called GCD - spread over a hundred acres - located between the City and Latifabad teshils.
Provincial fisheries minister Zahid Bhurgari had told WASA and SIDA to begin to reverse the flow from the Wadu Wah Canal on Tuesday. However, the orders were not carried out and water from the canal continued to spill into the GCD ground, threatening all areas along its six-kilometre route in the urban areas.
Drainage from Qasimabad tehsil, with an estimated population of around 350,000, falls in the GCD ground through Wadu Wah which is a fresh-water channel emerging from the Indus River and passing through Latifabad.
“The GCD ground has now filled to its capacity, so we decided to reverse the flow of Wadu Wah towards the Indus,” Bhurgari told The Express Tribune on Tuesday. An excavator is clearing silt from the canal. “We are doing our duty. WASA, the town municipal administration and the irrigation department also need to keep their drainage systems clear,” he said.
“We gave a 24 hours deadline to WASA to clear the affected areas,” said DCO Ahmed Baksh Narejo.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 15th, 2011.