As Karachi’s drains turn into sewers, disaster hits when it rains

There has been little accountability on sewage projects.

KARACHI: The rainwater doesn’t drain in Karachi mostly because its drains have been converted into sewers.

It rained for just 30 minutes or so but this was enough to inundate Karachi’s roads and lanes, leaving thousands of people stranded for hours as the city’s overburdened sanitation staff struggled to cope.

Parts of Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Clifton, Sharae Faisal, Korangi and Saddar were worst-hit.

“The storm water drains don’t work,” said Altaf Memon, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) director general of technical services. “All of them have been converted into sewers over the years. How would they take in rainwater?”

The drains, which are supposed to remain dry throughout the year, have been turned into sewer conduits for the city. A rise in the number of slums and squatter settlements built on the banks of the drains has made matters worse.

Almost all of the 13 big and over 250 small storm water drains have been encroached on. All the drains dispense the waste water into the Lyari and Malir rivers, which carry it off into the sea.

In DHA, the problem is different - the developer didn’t find it feasible to spend money on a proper drainage system when the locality was built.

The consequences are bad:  Khayaban-e-Hafiz, Khayaban-e-Hilal, Khayaban-e-Badr, Khayaban-e-Shujat, Sunset Boulevard and dozens of adjoining streets were flooded following the downpour and people were stuck in their homes.Asad Kizilbash, a member of the Association of Defence Residents, said that some drains were built a few years back but do not cover all of DHA. “There is another problem. The conduits have been built in such a way that it is not easy to clean them. You would have to break the road to do that.”

A spokesperson of the Cantonment Board Clifton said that around 250 sanitation workers were working round-the-clock to clear the roads. “We can’t do anything about the rain. Our staff will make sure that all main roads and streets are unclogged within a day.” However, he could not say what the authorities were doing about a proper drainage system for this part of the city.

The lack of accountability has allowed officials to spend public money at their own will, often awarding projects to those contractors who have a record of failing to deliver on past projects. KMC invested Rs32 million on the construction of a drain around the Do Talwar Roundabout and linked it with the Nehr-e-Khayyam. The drain doesn’t work and every time it rains, sanitary workers have to use pumps to clear the roads.

Officials said that Karachi’s main problem is the fact that encroachments have clogged storm water drains.

The 13.5 kilometre-long Gujjar Nullah starts from North Karachi and snakes through congested areas before meeting Lyari River at Liaqatabad. At some places, it is 70-feet wide and at some just five feet.

Thousands of slum dwellers had occupied both sides of Lyari River. Children used to drown every year and illegal houses, which blocked the water amid heavy downpour, would be submerged.

Thousands of people live in the cantonment board areas. A senior Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) official said all the sewage from these areas is dumped in the drains.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2012.