Every year, the residents along Gujjar Nullah in Nazimabad No 2 witness the famous Urdu-language proverb ‘katra katra banay samandar’ quite literally, as rainwater after heavy downpours in the monsoon season overflows from the clogged storm water drain and enters their abodes.
The nullah, beside the Super Market Police Station, has not been cleared for more than 18 months now, and the dwellers fear for the worst again this year. Despite many assurances of clearing the storm water drains from the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), the ground situation remains the same with the approaching monsoon season.
Whenever the drain overflows after heavy rains, the houses in the vicinity are submerged under four feet of water, resulting in massive losses to the residents including damages to electronic appliances like refrigerator, television, etc.
The situation also results in outbreaks of various diseases as the Gujjar Nullah is filled with all types of domestic waste coming from the whole of the city. Mosquitoes, flies and various other insects swarm the houses as the stagnant rainwater in the choked drain provides them with new breeding grounds.
On a visit to the area, Pakistan Today learnt that the embankments of Gujjar Nala are heaped with 4 to 6 feet of garbage. The garbage has substantially narrowed the nullah due to which the rainwater starts overflowing.
The residents told Pakistan Today that factories, hotels and other small industries situated in the area dump their waste into the drain without any checks.
Zahid Khan said that even the town municipality sweepers dump their garbage trolleys in the Gujjar Nullah. “Whenever we try to stop them they reply that the town authority has allowed them to dump the waste [in the drain],” he alleged. “Around one-and-a-half year ago, the municipality vehicles, after collecting garbage from various points in the area, dumped their waste at this point of the nullah, which is one of the major reasons of the blockage of the drain.”
Another resident, Bashir Ahmed, said the city government had cleaned the nullah around eighteen months ago but dumped all the garbage on the drain’s bank, and with the passage of time, the waste slipped back into the nullah.
Zubaida Khatoon told Pakistan Today that during last year’s monsoon season almost all the dowry she had collected for the marriage of her beloved daughter was damaged by the overflowing rainwater. “Who would pay us the cost of all that we collected in years,” she asked and answered herself, “no one, as the common man is just a voting machine for the government.”
Rukhsana Begum said the overflowing rainwater causes severe damage, as last year her refrigerator and television went out of order.
Fourteen-year-old Hasan informed this scribe that several of his friends, including himself, had fallen in the Gujjar Nullah due to the heaps of garbage at embankments.
CDGK District Coordination Officer Mohammad Hussain Syed was too busy in other engagements to answer these questions, when Pakistan Today tried to contact him.
Every year, the city government claims of cleaning all storm water drain in the city to avoid such situations; however, the work is not complete when the monsoon approaches.
This year also, the CDGK has announced confidently that it would clear all storm water drains in the ongoing cleaning campaign before monsoon rains fall. But the situation would bear witness whether the residents of Nazimabad No 2 face the same situation again or not when monsoon finally hits the city.
