Daily Times

LAHORE: Early morning thunderstorms with heavy and torrential rain turned the city weather pleasant on Wednesday. However, accumulated rainwater on roads, parks, grounds and ditches depicted the failure of City District Government Lahore, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) and other concerned authorities in formulating any strategy regarding pre-monsoon arrangements.

According to the Met Office, rain/dust-thundershowers with isolated heavy falls accompanied by strong gusty winds are expected in the next 24 hours at scattered places of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad and other parts of the city.

Gusts with thick clouds spread on the sky at around 8am and turned into a storm after few minutes. The rain started at around 8:30am and continued for several hours without any interval. Due to the continuous downpour, over 350 LESCO power feeders were tripped in the city, blacking out several areas. Massive traffic jam was also observed across the city, adding to the misery of commuters who remained stuck in the accumulated water.

The Met Office sources disclosed that 81mm downpour of rain was recorded at the airport, 44mm at Jail Road, 64mm at Farkhabad, 68mm at Paniwala Talab, 45mm at Upper Mall, 65mm at Misri Shah, 72mm at WASA Head Office, 55mm at Lakshmi Chowk, 68mm at Allam Iqbal Town, 50mm at Samanabad, 45mm at Mughal Pura, 45mm TajPura, 61mm at Nishter Town, 59mm Ghulshan-e-Ravi and 76mm at Johar Town.

A week ago, Steering Committee on Orange Line Chairman Khawaja Ahmed Hassan directed to complete the refilling of ditches, dug for OMT project, with mud on priority basis across the city. However, no implementation was observed on his order by the concerned departments.

On the other hand, DCO Lahore captain (r) Muhammad Usman claimed that CDGL, in collaboration with its allied civic agencies, pumped out the rainwater from all low-lying areas of the provincial capital. He said the rainwater was pumped out efficiently through strong and coordinated efforts of the government. However, contrary to his claim, rainwater was still accumulated on several roads and grounds until filling of this report.

The DCO monitored the process of pumping out rainwater from low-lying areas of the provincial capital. He said that CDGL was also in contact with Met Office continuously regarding the monsoon and all arrangements were taken accordingly.

He said that rainwater could not gather at underpasses and metro bus stations due to modern equipments and efficient surveillance by WASA, LWMC and CDGL. “Similarly, all generators attached with dewatering motors were operative and in spite of load shedding and feeder tripping in some areas, the system remained functional,” he added.

The DCO said he passed on instructions to all town administrators before the rain so they could remain in the field and check the attendance of staff appointed for dewatering exercise. They were also directed to monitor the process by themselves in order to make the monitoring more strict and active.

The heavy rains on the second consecutive day to some extent gave relief to citizens from hot and humid weather but on the other hand created problems for people who suffered a lot as the water entered the houses, mosques, buildings and even shopping centres.