The sewerage systems in the twin cities of Islamabad Rawalpindi are destroying the streets and roads while the residents have demanded of the authorities to remove the faulty sewerage lines.
The residents of the twin cities have complained that the broken, narrow and dirty streets present a scene of ruins.
The sewerage system is in deplorable condition, gutters are overflowing and rainy water inundates the streets, which becomes the main reason of the roads’ destruction.
Though the government has rebuilt broken roads in the last 6 years, due to the poor sanitation system streets have once again broken. Locals have demanded of the authority concerned to reconstruct the streets on priority basis and improve the sanitation system.
In the absence of proper sewage system, residents of the twin cities are forced to drain water outside their homes. “Most of the people drain water in nearby streets where it accumulates, causing bad smell. The whole street of Farooqia Market of F/6, is choked with stagnant water,” said Mohsin Khan, a resident of F-6 Sector. Amir Ali, a resident of Rawalpindi, said that every second day, sewerage water enters the main road and create great problems for not only pedestrians but also for motorists.
When contacted, a Capital Development Authority (CDA) official said they had taken several steps to overcome the sewage issue. He said the residents who did not properly dispose of sewage would face penalty, adding that the civic body will address the residents’ grievances on priority basis.
Only 35 percent of the city is covered by sewerage lines and the poor wastewater system has become a major source of health hazards, reveals a report.
This situation exists when Rawalpindi is the only city in Punjab where no pumping is needed to run sewerage system, notes the Economic Report 2007-08 of the Punjab government.
Poliovirus has also been found in sewage water samples collected from Gaddap Town, Karachi, after a gap of about four months. Gaddap Town is one of the country’s key poliovirus reservoirs where a lot of efforts were made over the last six months to reach every child during every polio campaign. However, during the last campaign in mid-July, all children could not be reached due to deteriorated security situation and incidents targeting polio workers. Similarly, sewage samples from Baldia Town, Karachi, have also shown the presence of polio virus for the first time this year after 12 samples did not have poliovirus earlier this year. Pakistan has reported 27 polio cases this year so far; 13 from Fata, 6 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 3 each from Sindh and Punjab and 2 from Balochistan. These polio cases come from 15 districts.
It blames the appalling situation on poor planning. Instead of planning to meet the long-term needs of the rapidly growing cities, the planners contended themselves with offering piecemeal solutions. Rawalpindi’s population has risen to 2.5 million in the past two decades but the city had no sewage treatment plant. Only now the city district government plans to build such a plant under a Rawalpindi environment improvement project (REIP) being funded by the Asian Development Bank.
