A head constable died when the roof of a room in the police lines headquarters collapsed while most of the roads and streets in the federal capital and Rawalpindi were inundated after the heavy rain on Thursday, which showed the roads constructed by the civic agency had no proper rain drainage system.
Muhammad Azam, a head constable of the capital police, died when the roof of a room in the Police Lines building collapsed. Puddles of accumulated water were created in Faizabad, on I-8 Service Road, Aabpara, Karachi Company, Sitara Market and Katchi Abadis.
“The already overloaded road infrastructure of the city is likely to collapse due to inundation of the city’s arteries, so the CDA’s relevant directorate should swing into action immediately,” an official of the civic body said and added the authority was only focusing on the construction of new roads, but they seldom bothered to drain the rainwater on the already constructed roads.
The heavy rainwater also submerged the manholes located on the roadside, causing several pedestrians and motorists to fall into uncovered and open manholes. The rainwater accumulated at various places made their lives miserable as they were unable to see the trenches and open manholes, which not only injured them but also caused damage to their vehicles.
“Traveling on inundated roads is quite a daunting task, especially in such bad weather,” a number of motorists said. Heavy rains have made life miserable for slum dwellers of the twin cities and they are living in constant fear that their mud houses can collapse anytime. Most of the mud houses in the slum areas have been made from logs, straws, dry grass, tattered clothes and plastic sheets. These areas have no proper drainage system and the mud houses can collapse due to the leaking roofs.
The rainwater from streets and roads also enters these houses, making their mud walls even weaker. Most of these Katchi Abadis in the capital city are located in the catchment areas of nullahs, reducing the width of these watercourses, which hampers the flow of water and may create a flood-like situation if the monsoon rains continue at the same speed.
