Millions spent on infrastructure down the drain

In Sukkur, pumping stations are submerged and craters have developed on recently built roads.

SUKKUR/ KARACHI:

The recent downpour has shown that the government learnt little from the super floods that hit Sindh in the past two years. The people of rain-hit areas now hope that the government will learn one fact: it takes around six days of downpour to expose shoddy efforts to improve infrastructure.

The moonsoon rain began on September 8, wreaking havoc throughout upper Sindh.

Back in January 2011, the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) started managing the sanitation systems of Sukkur, Rohri, Shikarpur, Khairpur and Larkana. It announced that the sanitation and water supply systems in these cities would be modernised. Though the corporation claims that it has spent millions of rupees on this, the downpour shows that the money was not well-spent.

In Khairpur, the chief minister’s hometown, a mega drainage project and road network scheme were completed at the cost of Rs400 millions just four months ago. After the downpour, the drainage system collapsed and craters developed in the newly constructed roads.

Around Rs4 billion has been spent on the construction of drains in Larkana. But despite this, rainwater has accumulated in many areas and pumps are required to drain it. There are 33 pumping stations in the city and according to reports, when the NSUSC took over, it said that all of them were in shambles. Only 13 have been fixed so far at a cost of Rs250 million.

In a press release issued on Saturday, the NSUSC’s director of operations and services, Syed Abid Hussainy, said that rainwater is going to be drained from almost all areas that the organisation is responsible for. He said that around 80 per cent of the rainwater was removed in the first two days of the downpour, but the remainder could not be removed from low-lying areas in Sukkur, where three disposal stations  had become inundated.

Missing funds

The relief department and administrations of rain-affected districts were stunned to learn on Thursday that the cheques given to them on the chief minister’s orders couldn’t be cashed. This was because the amount released by the finance department was not transferred to the relief department’s accounts.

As soon as heavy rains devastated parts of the province, the relief department approached the finance department, which issued a cheque worth Rs139 million on September 12. Without delay, the relief department began issuing cheques worth Rs5 million to deputy commissioners of affected districts. But the cheques couldn’t be cashed. According to government procedure, the deputy commissioners of each district must send their requirements to the relief department, which sends a summary to the chief minister, requesting approval for funds. The chief minister then asks the finance department to release the budget to relief department’s accounts. The adviser to the chief minister on relief, Haleem Adil Shaikh, has sent a letter to the chief minister, complaining about the problem with the cheques. He said that out of a total budget Rs500 million allocated to his department, the finance ministry has released only Rs150 million. But even this amount has not been transferred so far. The relief department has now allotted Rs339 million to the rain-hit districts.

When contacted, the finance secretary said that there was some technical problem which is why the funds were not released. “The amount will be transferred to the relief department’s account by Tuesday,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2012.