Staff Report
KARACHI: The Sindh government, Corps Headquarters Corps-5, NDMA, and FWO have jointly decided to assign the work of removal of the sludge of three Nallas to FWO and simultaneously the provincial government with their support would remove encroachments from all the stormwater drains in the city.
This decision was taken in a high-level meeting here on Friday under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah. The meeting was attended by Minister Local Government Syed Nasir Shah, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab, Corps Commander Karachi Lt. General Humayun Aziz, Chairman NDMA Lt. Gen. Mohammad Afzal, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahlwani, Secretary LG Roshan Shaikh, Brigadier Hussain Masud of Corps-5, Brig Waseem of NDMA, DG SSWMA Kashif Shaikh, PD CLICK Zubair Channa, Masood Ala of KMC and other concerned officials.
The meeting decided to hand over the cleaning of three nallas to FWO, they include Gujjar Nallah District Central. It would be cleaned to its entire length and leftover work along with cleaning of all feeding nallahs and addressing Green Line drain issues.
The CBM Nallah, District Korangi.
The FWO would clean Shahrah-e-Faisal stormwater drains, both sides, along with adjacent choking points such as FTC, Nursery, Gulshan-e-Zafar, Tipu Sultan Road, Karsaz, Drigh Road, Stargate). Sludge will be taken out and dumped directly at dumpsites of Jam Chakro & TP-1. The local government department with the support of Pak army and Rangers would remove encroachments from the embankments of the nallas so that rainwater could be disposed of in natural gravity.
KMC Nallahs: The meeting was told that there the KMC has 38 nallas and they all were being cleaned under the World Bank project, SWEEP. Apart from KMC, the DMCs have 514 smaller nallahs and The DMC were responsible for the cleaning for which the Sindh government has been providing them additional funds. There are some nallas of the Cantonments and KWSB in the city. The Sindh government off and on provides funds for cleaning of KMC nallas.
Problems: In the recent monsoon what went wrong was three spells in which cloud busted for 63 to 86 mm less than in an hour, the chief minister said and added that the existing infrastructure of the city has the capacity to sustain 25 to 30 mm within 30 minutes rain.
Mr. Shah said that the areas where rainwater accumulated or flooded the localities were Gujjar Nallah at Liaquatabad, Sher Shah Suri Road where pillars of Green Line infrastructure have been constructed within Nala. Kashmir Colony at the tail-end of Orangi Nallah. Gulistan-i-Jauhar where encroachment has emerged and desilting could not be made properly.
Gulshan-i-Zafar is adjacent to PECHS where encroachment issues are the main causes. Zaman Town in Korangi which has also encroachment issues and Soldier Bazaar Nallah at Police Lines which was deliberately made choked by putting heavy stones into the drain by.
Rain situation: On July 17 it rained more than 63 mm within an hour at PAF Faisal Base Station. PECHS and Shahrah-e-Faisal choked for a few hours at Roomi Mosque due to encroachment at Gulshan-i-Zafar. Zaman Town flooded by two feet due to encroachments there. It was pointed out that most of the previous year problematic areas remained normal because their issues were addressed.
July 26: On July 26, it rained more than 86 mm within an hour, as a result, rainwater inundations in Gulistan-i-Jauhar where a private educational institution has encroached upon the nalas, therefore its desilting could not be made. Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Shah said that Green Line structures disconnected old drainage systems in Gujjar Nallah which caused flooding in the area, he added that the Soldier Bazaar Nallah choked due to deliberate dumping of large stones and other material.
July 27: On July 27, the downpour was unprecedented, more than 74 mm was rained within an hour. The Flash water from hill torrents inundated Orangi and Gujjar Nallah. GreenLine structures again blocked drainage flowing into Gujjar Nallah with an accumulation of water at KDA, Sakhi Hassan, and Nagan Chowrangi. Heavy rains in Orangi Nallah inundated Kashmir Muhalla (tail end – low lying Kachi Abadi).
WB intervention: Talking about World Bank intervention for improvement of the Solid Waste Collection/disposal system in the city, Murad Ali Shah said that under the World Bank SWEEP scheme of CLICK project the exercise of Nullah Cleaning has been undertaken. The Sindh government invested an amount equal to the US $ 8.0 million from its own sources which would be retro-effectively reimbursed by the WB. The Sindh government has released Rs. 200 million as a stop-gap arrangement for cleaning the Nullahs, the chief minister pointed out.
Pre-post cleaning situation: Gujjar Nala district Central, Mahmoodabad Nalla district East, Songal nala, District Malir/East, Soldier Bazaar, City nalla, Pitcher Nalla, Kalri Nalla district South have been cleaned. 3966193 tons of sludge have been disposed of from seven districts right from July 29, 2020. They include 822995 tons from central, 973,009 West, 368,309 South-1, 664631 South-2, 804,279 East, 187,937 Malir and 145,033 Korangi.
The Corps Commander Karachi and Chairman NDMA assured the chief minister that they would be supporting the Sindh government in rectifying design defects of the nallas and the Green Line project. The also assured the Sindh government that it would be supported in the removal of encroachments along the nallas. The chief minister thanked the Corps Commander Karachi and NDMA for their support.
