Lives down the drain

FAISALABAD: Over dozens of uncovered, dirty nullahs have claimed the lives of several people in Faisalabad.

“The Water and Sanitation Agency (wasa) administration only issues statements and no measures are being taken to save lives in this regard,” said Khurram Shah, a resident.

WASA has allocated an underground three thousand kilometre sewer network for Faisalabad’s four million residents. In the more congested areas, four large nullahs are also being used to remove sewerage water but these nullahs are usually not covered and have no boundary walls. Over the past year dozens of lives have been lost due to the tehsil municipal administration’s (TMA) laxity regarding this pressing issue. “Most of the victims were children, as they seldom keep an eye out for such things,” Khurram said. In the last year, over 32 people have died due to the uncovered nullahs passing through Ghulam Muhammad Abad, Satiani Road, Sargodha Road, Chaba Road and dozens of other localities in the district.

Sabrian Bibi, the mother of a deceased three-year-old boy said “my son fell in an open manhole, he was taken out hours later and was already dead. We are poor people, he was three-year-old, we don’t even have food to eat, no one consoled us, we are quiet and we are tolerating it,” she said, adding that the TMA was directly responsible for her child’s death.

WASA authorities have not devised any plan or scheme to begin covering up open drains and manholes located throughout the district. “Open nullahs are a regular feature of this city, we are actually surprised when we see a covered drain now,” Faisal, a student, said.

However, according to development officials, several projects are underway with the cooperation of France and Japan to replace the underground sewage system in the district. Fahad Alam, an architect, said that this still didn’t solve the problem of open drains. “Wasa and other development agencies have been dangling the prospect of a complete sewage system re-haul for a while but this is an attempt to deflect responsibility. This system, if it is implemented, will take years. The open drains are killing people now,” he said

Wasa MD, Dr Muhammad Arshad said “We are trying hard to separate the domestic sewerage system from the industrial one. We have succeeded to a certain extent and boundary walls will be built around nullahs after de-silting them.”

Alam insisted that the MD is still trying to dodge the issue of open drains, “he talks of boundary walls and de-silting, when all that is required is drain covers which wasa seems incapable of providing.” Faisalabad’s 113 union councils have a capacity to drain 450 cusecs of water but approximately 700 cusecs of dirty water enters 33 disposal stations of the city. Due to the excess of water gutters remain perpetually overfilled.

People in Faisalabad have threatened to protest against wasa and the provincial government for not putting enough pressure on the TMA to cover up open manholes and drains in the district. “Our children are dying. People randomly walk or trip into open drains and break their necks. The government just doesn’t seem to care,” said Saadullah, the father of deceased seven-year-old Naila. “My daughter fell into an open manhole two months ago and nothing was done, no one cared,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2010.