All storm water drains to be cleared of encroachments before monsoon, says LG secy

In view of the last year’s monsoon tragedy in the city where many areas suffered urban flooding after the rains, the Sindh government will remove encroachments from all the storm water nullahs in the city and strengthen the drains before this year’s monsoon season.

This was stated by Sindh Local Government Secretary Najam Ahmed Shah on Saturday as he chaired a meeting to review a project to be undertaken for removing encroachments from the Orangi Town drain and carrying out its re-modelling before the monsoon.

Sindh Solid Waste Management Board Managing Director Zubair Channa said on the occasion that experts belonging to the NED University of Engineering & Technology had presented their case study report containing recommendations to upgrade the Orangi Town drain.

The local government secretary said that no obstacle would be tolerated in the way of upgrading the storm water drains of Karachi to maximise their capacity before the next monsoon.

He added that a comprehensive and composite strategy needed to be adopted to upgrade the storm water drains in the city in order to make them ready to withstand any emergency situation as the result of heavy monsoon downpour.

He explained that in this regard, the government was specially focussing was on the Gujjar, Mahmoodabad, and Orangi Town storm water drains of the city to restore them to their original shape and capacity.

The provincial government has the resolve to tackle on a permanent basis, the mafia involved in encroachments, he said. The local government secretary told the relevant officials to ensure that the basic infrastructure and structure of the storm water drains remained intact during their re-modelling and restructuring.

He said the Sindh government had availed the services of the relevant experts of the NED University in order to take care of the legitimate civic interests of the residents of the West and Keamari districts of the city who, otherwise, could be harmed if any re-modelling of the Orangi Town drain was carried out carelessly.

He said the basic mandate of the Sindh local government department was to serve and facilitate the people to the maximum possible extent.