KARACHI: The encroachments over major drains and their outfall points along with the absence of solid waste management system in Karachi puts the city at risk of urban flooding, a local media house reported experts as saying on Saturday.
It was reported that Karachi’s weak infrastructure cannot withstand heavy downpour and will likely experience a situation worse than the rain incident in Lahore earlier last week.
“Lahore had 177mm rain but Karachi can’t withstand even 100mm of rain. There would be deluge everywhere,” said Mohammad Yunus representing the Urban Resource Centre.
“Over the past decade, all major storm-water drains of the city [over 40 in number] have been encroached upon and concrete structures, including housing colonies, banks, shops and even markets, have been built over these channels,” he was quoted in the report.
He referred to encroachments on the land owned by the Karachi Port Trust and development of infrastructure by the Defence Housing Authority as well as by the KPT that resulted in the closure of discharge points of city’s natural drains.
The recent drive to clean up drains by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) could not bring a significant improvement due to the absence of relevant machinery.
Salim Alimuddin, an expert on city’s drainage system who is associated with the Orangi Pilot Project stated that even though the government had laid new drainage lines, the actual problem of encroached/clogged outfall point still remains. These should be cleaned at least two to three times a year.
Moreover, KMC’s senior coordination director was quoted in the report and stated that the civic body had started cleaning drains and the work was going on at a fast pace across the city.
“We are focusing on 23 major drains with the help of maximum human and financial resource available to us,” he said, adding that though the total amount requested for the work was Rs1.28 billion, the KMC had received Rs500 million.