Low-lying Lahore areas submerged in rainwater

LAHORE: Various city localities remained submerged in rainwater on Sunday while the Met office predicted more rain on Monday (today).

The monsoon rain hit the city on Sunday night inundating several low-lying areas besides causing inconvenience for the citizens who were out from their homes for Eid shopping. Following the rain, maximum temperature came down to 31°C while humidity level increased to 69 percent.

However, rainwater was still accumulated in different areas, including Johar Town, Township, Green Town, Awan Town, Tajpura, Taj Bagh, Wassanpura, Shahdara, some blocks of Gulshan-e-Ravi, Samanabad, Bastami Road, Nawankot and several other localities near and around Ring road. One can also witness stagnant rainwater in a large number of greenbelts, empty plots and big and small parks of different localities over which citizens expressed concern.

Met officials said monsoon currents were penetrating in central and upper parts of the country and a fresh westerly wave was affecting upper parts of the country and likely to persist till Thursday.

They predicted rain/dust-thundershowers with isolated heavy falls accompanied by windstorm at scatterred places in Islamabad, Punjab (Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Multan, Sahiwal, DG Khan, Bahawalpur divisions), KP (Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat, Bannu, DI Khan divisions), Kashmir (Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Poonch divisions), Zhob divisions, Fata (Kurram, Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, North & South Waziristan Agencies) and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Other cities where rainfall was recorded included Mianwali, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Multan, Bahawalpur, Bhakkar, Jhelum, Layyah, Murree, Lahore, Kot Addu, Bahawalnagar, Jhang, Mangla, Gujranwala and Sialkot Cantt, Sargodha, DI Khan, Bannu, Dir and Kalam, Kakul and Mirkhani, Pattan, Balakot, Cherat, Peshawar, Rawalakot, Muzaffarabad, Garhi Dupatta, Kotli, Gilgit, Hunza and Gupis.

Meanwhile, Lahore DCO and WASA managing director along with their staff also visited different city localities to monitor the situation. Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) claimed that its dedicated sanitary crew remained alert on 144 major choking points across the city in order to help out other district departments in maintaining smooth flow of rainwater and timely disposal of solid waste.

Under the Emergency Response Plan for monsoon season, more than 1,200 workers of LWMC performed duty on 144 low-lying areas of city to facilitate drainage of water by removing solid waste and silt from drains and to efficiently address emergency situation during heavy spell of rain.

Later on, LWMC Managing Director Bilal Mustafa Syed visited the city in order to review the state of sanitation and arrangements particularly in low-lying areas and Ramazan bazaars. He witnessed and monitored the process of emptying waste containers by the vehicles of Turkish companies and following it he directed to improve the process during Eid days keeping in view the generation of waste.

LWMC’s spokesman Jamil Khawar said 1,200 sanitary workers along with necessary gadgets, tools and machinery were performing duties in 2nd and 3rd shift with workers of other district departments in order to resolve choking issues at around 146 major and sensitive places across the city declared as choking points.