City receives scattered rain

LAHORE : Heavy to moderate but scattered rain was witnessed in various city localities here on Saturday while Met office predicted similar weather conditions for the next 24 hours.

The rain started in the afternoon and continued till evening in spans. Following the rain, traffic went to a snail’s pace on the major city roads while a number of motorcyclists took refuge under the trees, shades and underpasses. As per the data released by Wasa, 80 mm rain was recorded at Farrukhabad while traces were witnessed in Township and adjoining areas. Rest of the localities where rain witnessed included Lakshmi Chowk (56 mm), Paniwala Talab (55 mm), Qurtaba Chowk (52 mm), Jail Road (42 mm), Airport (23 mm), Chowk Nakhuda (21 mm), Upper Mall (17 mm), Samanabad (14 mm), Gulshan Ravi (13 mm), Gulberg (12 mm), Mughalpura (4 mm), and Iqbal Town (2 mm). Following the rain, Wasa MD Ghafran Ahmed also came out in the field and visited low lying localities and ponding points in the city. He also monitored the drainage operation moment by moment from the Monsoon Control Room established in the Wasa head office.

Commissioner Lahore Zaid bin Maqsood also visited different areas of the city to check cleanliness. He visited Manawa and Wagah area along with LWMC CEO Babar Sahib Din. Commissioner Lahore directed that teams of MCL, LWMC and Wasa must dispose of the waste water and garbage present inside the Manawa village. He directed Wasa to clean the drain between Manawa and a private housing society. Commissioner Lahore said that the filth inside the neighborhoods caused bad smell and diseases. He said that it was the joint responsibility of the cleanliness departments and the citizens to keep their streets and areas clean. Complete success of cleanliness of streets was impossible without the cooperation of citizens, the Commissioner said adding instructions have been issued to all administrative machinery to hold joint operations to clear garbage and stagnant sewer water.

Meanwhile, Met office warned that heavy rains may generate flash flooding in local nullahs/streams of Sialkot, Narowal, Jhelum, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Mandi Bahauddin, Lahore, Hafizabad, Murree, Galiyat, Islamabad/ Rawalpindi, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Haripur, Kohistan, Dir, Swat, Shangla on August 11 (today).

Saturday’s highest maximum temperature was recorded at Nokkundi where mercury reached 46°C while in Lahore it was 35°C and minimum was 27.2°C.