Flooding puts CBC and DHA in the dock

Karachi

For two months now, Mrs Rabia Mehmood, a resident of 14th Street on DHA off Khyaban-e-Rahat, has been going to the office of the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) to have a streetlight, which fell some months back, reinstalled.

The streetlight, which was on a pole outside her house, fell when strong winds blew through the city a few month ago. Instead of letting someone steal the streetlight, she dutifully collected it and tried to have it reinstalled. But her visits are futile. Every day, the officer in-charge of streetlights in the CBC office has a new story to tell. And now it is getting to be frustrating for this elderly lady.

Residents of DHA ask why they have been left at the mercy of the CBC, which is apparently accountable to no one. “We don’t have any general living here and that is why the CBC does not care whether we have adequate water supply, proper lighting or a working drainage system,” laments another resident, himself a former air force officer.

The CBC has now attained notoriety for not coming up to the expectations of residents, despite the fact that it charges one of the highest rates for municipal services which it does not offer.

There are calls for the government to hand over cantonment boards to elected councilors, but the military balks at the idea. In the process, people who live in this upscale but neglected locality have to suffer the consequences. For its part, both the CBC and DHA, the body charged with development of the area, seem to be more focused on grand plans and not the nitty-gritty of running a municipality.

Billions are being spent by the DHA on a waterfront development project at a time when many of its traffic signals are out of order and its roads have caved in at points. The DHA does not have a proper sewerage system in Phase 6 which makes it vulnerable to flooding during every spell of heavy rainfall. “All we do is take water from one point and drain it at

another empty plot,” comments one engineer.

The massive flooding that occurred in parts of DHA following the rains over the weekend has exposed not only the inefficiency of the CBC but also the inability of the DHA to rise to the expectations of its residents.

Laila Bokhari, a resident of Phase 6, says that she is angry at the callous manner adopted by the DHA when it comes to developing the area. “They broke our gutter line when building a new road and then said that we should pay to get it fixed.”

Bullying tactics by the DHA, particularly those of its Vigilance Section, have been a source of many complaints. Some residents say that they are planning to take both the DHA and CBC to court for its negligence and lack of planning in the rains over the weekend.

Privately, even senior DHA officials say that all their good work is undone by the CBC. And when there is a crisis, the DHA has to step in. For example, the work of draining the roads is the work of the CBC. But it seems that, despite having funds to build a multi-storied plaza next to the Forum Shopping Mall in Clifton as well as other misguided projects, there are not enough funds with the CBC for buying suction machines and trucks that can efficiently drain the water. The DHA is hiring tankers for the job instead. Given the state of affairs with which the CBC manages Defence and parts of Clifton, one can only assume that a massive reorganisation of this board is on the cards, say residents.

Questions for Brigadier Kamran Aziz Kazi, Administrator, DHA

1. Do you think that the rain crisis was managed well by the DHA and CBC? How would you compare your organisation’s work with that of the CDGK?

2. If the sewage system has collapsed in parts of DHA, who is to be held responsible?

3. As the person overseeing the work of the CBC, are you happy with their work and if not, are you going to do something about it?

4. Do you not feel that the DHA has become more focused on money-spinning rather than on providing proper infrastructure in existing areas?

Questions for Khawaja Iftikhar Mir, CEO CBC

1. How many suction vehicles does CBC have and where were they employed during the rains over the weekend?

2. How many senior officials were asked to man the emergency services of the CBC during the rains?

3. Why was the hotline not operative and why was there no one at the complaint “cell” established in the CBC office when residents came to protest?

4. Why did you and your PRO switch off their mobile phones when The News wanted to get your version?