Explosive drains now raising a stink

After fixing the leaks, gas company left the road un-metalled.

ISLAMABAD:

After dealing with exploding rooms due to gas leakage, residents of Teachers Colony in Bhara Kahu now have to contend with sewage flowing into their kitchens and washrooms through water pipes.

According to the residents, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline (SNGPL) fixed the gas leakages but created a fresh problem for them. Sewage water is mixing with puddles in the area, making it an ordeal to walk along the street due to the pungent smell, said locals. The water has also seeped into nearby houses, they added.

In November, there were explosions due to a gas leak in Bhara Kahu which claimed two lives and left one person critically injured. Two incidents occurred in a single day: one in Nai Abadi, killing a man on the spot, while the other incident took place at Teachers Colony, leaving Abid Hussain Abbasi, 31, a shopkeeper and father of three, with fatal burns. Before that, a man sustained severe burn injuries in a similar blast after trying to light a candle in a washroom.

Residents believed that the explosions were triggered by natural gas leaking from gas pipelines running parallel to sewage lines.

SNGPL staff dug up three points on the metal road to fix the gas leakage. However, they failed to properly close the road, and simply covered the openings with mud.

“Sewage water flowing into the driveway and the kitchen and washrooms pipes has made it difficult for us to breath in our own house,” said Rashda Bibi, a resident of the colony. She said it has become impossible to cook food in the kitchen or to keep food items there due to the smell.

“Last year, it was gas [leakage] killing people and it seems like this year it will be the smell forcing us to stop breathing,” she said.

Nadeem Khan, another resident of the street, said if this had happened in an elite sector, a metal road would have been constructed soon after the gas leak was fixed.

“Due to the sewerage water it has become difficult to walk on the street, especially while going to the mosques. Our clothes and feet get dirty,” he said.

SNGPL said they were “unaware of the issue and will look into it”.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2012.