LAHORE: The residents of Kacha Jail Road area in Kot Lakhpat of the provincial capital have been facing severe problems due to the stranded sewerage water in their streets, Pakistan Today observed on Sunday.
The most affected are the residents of Green View Housing Society, located at the Kacha Jail Raod where the people have suffered from the problem for over four months.
According to the residents, the reason for standing water in the street was the poor sewerage system installed by Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA).
They said that WASA had failed to dispose of the sewerage water from the area. “A score of applications have been submitted to WASA officials while locals also have approached the local body representatives to get resolved their problem,” a resident complained while adding that the issue remained unattended despite the complaints.
Chaudhary Akbar Ali, a resident of the while talking to Pakistan Today, said that they had been highlighting the issue of their area time and again but all promises remained unfulfilled. “WASA officials say that they have installed a pumping station but we don’t know when it will be functional,” he said.
Akbar said that due to the lack of proper pumping station, the gutter water was flowing on the ground and making the streets filthy. “The dirty water is causing several diseases among residents while bad smell emanating from water has become the feature of the area,” he said and added that despite several complaints authorities still reluctant to deal with the issue.
Another resident Amjad Ali told Pakistan Today that since the Nawaz Sharif had been ousted from the power, authorities were reluctant to release funds for the area. “Whenever we approached the authorities including our local body representatives and WASA officials they merely promised to resolve the problem but practically did nothing,” he blamed.
A WASA officer, seeking anonymity informed Pakistan Today that this was the long resolving issue of the area but due to poor infrastructure agency could not install pumping station to dispose of the sewerage water. However, he said that a pumping station near Chandray Wala drain has been installed but it’s not functional due to the lack of electricity connection.
Union Council 229 Chairman Ghulam Hussain Bhatti while talking to Pakistan Today said that there was no reality that the government was reluctant to release funds in this perspective. He admitted that this was a long unresolved issue and claimed it had been resolved now.
Bhatti said that he had put special efforts in the installation of the pumping stations and had faced many problems where people even threatened to lodge a case against him. “I don’t fear any consequence while facilitating residents of my union council,” he said.
However, he said that the new station will soon start pumping the water into the drain.