CHAKWAL City News

Nine years on, Chakwal sewerage project not finished yet
From Kh Babar Saleem
CHAKWAL: People would have enjoyed the heavy rain that hit the Chakwal city the other day (Wednesday), if the things were normal as far as the civic amenities are concerned.
But their reaction was exactly opposite as the downpour paralysed the routine, as rainwater accumulated on all major roads - Jhelum Road, Talagang Road and Pindi Road - and streets, turning the city into a lake that forced the people to stay indoors.
During Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi’s tenure as chief minister, the Punjab government had approved sewerage system for Chakwal at the cost of more than Rs 300 million in 2006. The work on this project started briskly as the government wanted to attract voters in the 2007 elections.
By the time elections were held in Feb 2008 with an around two-month delay because of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, all most 60 per cent project work had been completed, during which huge sewers were dug to drain rainwater and routine sewage for proper disposal.
But in 2008 elections, the PML-Q was defeated by PML-N lead by the Sharif brothers. The new PML-N government in Punjab stopped work on the project and launched an inquiry, claiming that million of rupees had been minted in the venture.
Since then seven years have passed but no Public Health Department official has been brought justice, while the construction still remains unfinished.
Many sewers were either dug or completely built as part of the planned sewerage system, but they have been encroached with the passage of time. The latest position is that these sewers are filled with garbage and the TMA has failed to ensure water flow in them. As such, even a normal rain converts the entire city into a lake, while rainwater enters into shops after heavy rains in monsoon season, with three to four feet of water accumulating in some areas.
The district administration’s failure to make this important sewerage and drainage project functional is causing great hardships to more than 0.2 million population of the city.
Citizens believe that every penny should be recovered from the corrupt officials but, at the same time, the project must be completed at the earliest so that they could get rid of this daily misery.