Wasa not performing up to the mark, says Ghani

HYDERABAD: The Sindh government started making preparations for dealing with the rainy season in the province in May.

Sindh Local Government and Public Health Engineering Minister Saeed Ghani said this on Saturday as he addressed a press conference in Hyderabad. Sindh Irrigation and Food Minister Jam Khan Shoro also accompanied him.

Ghani said that earlier in the day, he had held a meeting to review the arrangements for the upcoming rains as there had been a forecast of heavy rains in the province.

He said the Hyderabad commissioner, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) managing director, Hyderabad mayor and Hyderabad deputy commissioner briefed him on the preparations for rain.

He said some institutions, including Wasa, had not been fulfilling their responsibilities effectively, and the government was making efforts to improve their performance.

He said that so far during the current monsoon season, the preparations for rain had been successful but if heavy rains occurred the situation might become difficult and the relevant institutions had been alerted for that.

Shoro said the Sindh government had given him the responsibility of overseeing rain preparations in the Hyderabad district.

Answering a question, the irrigation minister said the no-objection certificates given to the housing schemes being constructed on the Indus River had been cancelled.

Earlier, Shoro and Ghani chaired a meeting regarding rain emergency at the Shehbaz Hall in Hyderabad.

Ghani said the meeting had to be called to review the situation in the light of the warning of heavy rains issued by the Provincial Disaster Management Authority.

He said that in order to prevent public inconvenience during heavy rains, employees and officials of all the relevant departments would remain present in the field.

He added that Wasa had been asking for a grant every month. The agency would get a grant during the current rainy season, but it was not possible for the government to provide it a grant every month, Ghani remarked.

He also issued directions for forming a backup plan to ensure electricity supply in case of heavy rains.

Shoro said water in the canals would be reduced during the rains, and the plan of 2022 would be repeated along with installing machinery at additional points. He added that Wasa should improve its recovery. All the government institutions had been paying Wasa’s bills, he maintained.

Local Government Additional Chief Secretary Syed Khalid Hyder Shah informed the meeting that most of the rainwater was into the canals and the Indus River.

Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Zainul Abidin Memon said Hyderabad had a total capacity to drain one hundred millimetres of rain, if it rained more than that, more machines would be needed.

He told the meeting that there were 118 disposal stations in Hyderabad, some of which had a generator backup and the rest were dependent on electricity from the grid.

He explained that 243 pumps had been installed with 641 staffers deployed there.

The meeting was told that the disaster management authority had predicted that the rains this year would be similar to those of 2022 and the holidays of all departments had been cancelled.

The Hyderabad deputy commissioner informed the meeting that there are 29 sensitive points in the city where machinery would be available for rainwater drainage.

The Wasa MD said the agency had completed desilting of nine main drains and it needed a grant of Rs240 million.