nce again, the monsoon has brought urban flooding to Lahore. But this time, it appears that the concerned civic agencies may just be better prepared than they were last year.

During the month, the city witnessed two major rain spells, drowning almost all major roads. But the rainwater was cleared within the next few hours.

This was made possible because the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) had started early desilting of drains; deployed extra machinery; upgraded disposal stations; constituted emergency camps and rapid response teams; and standby generators and water pumps.

However, experts says that these steps are not enough and the rapidly growing city needs well-planned, long-term solutions to cope with the phenomenon of urban flooding.

For the past several years, other than Lahore, many big cities in the province have faced a similar situation. Urban flooding, as per experts, is a result of climate change under which weather patterns of the region have changed and are changing, with rains having increased in summers and winters.

Another factor behind urban flooding in big cities like Lahore, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan is the unplanned expansion of residential localities, which lack proper civic amenities, especially drainage systems.

Experts believe that the non-implementation of rainwater harvesting systems in the construction sector has been a factor in urban flooding. This ultimately damages properties as well as other infrastructure of the cities.

Ghufran Ahmed, WASA’s managing director, tells The News on Sunday that this monsoon, the agency has handled urban flooding with a plan in place. “We focused on 26 vulnerable points in the provincial capital historically known for accumulating rainwater during monsoon,” he says. Ahmed says that the two underground rainwater storage tanks had also helped in clearing rainwater.

He says that the agency has planned the construction of 12 underground rainwater storage tanks, out of which two (Kashmir Road and Lawrence Road) have become operational. The water stored in these tanks is later used by the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) for gardening and by Rescue 1122 for firefighting.

Other measures taken by the WASA include the establishment of emergency camps on various city roads and round-the-clock deployment of field staff at these camps. The WASA managing director says that all disposal stations had been upgraded before the monsoon season and were ready to ensure flow of channels and dewatering operations from low-lying pockets. “Overall, the strict monitoring of the post-rain operations helped the agency in dealing with urban flooding,” he adds.

Ghufran Ahmed claims that urban flooding in Lahore is a new phenomenon. He says it needs innovative solutions. “We can construct rainwater drains in the densely populated pockets of the city. We have planned to lay underground rainwater drains using trenchless technologies,” he says.

Last year, President Dr Arif Alvi had endorsed the replication of underground rainwater storage facilities in other cities, especially Islamabad and Karachi to combat urban flooding and, later, the use of the stored water. Islamabad and Karachi have also been facing urban flooding issues for several years and also require new solutions.

Desilting of sewer lines of 5,187 kilometre, and 55.70 kilometre primary drains, which dispose of their water in Ravi River, was also part of the monsoon emergency plan, says the WASA chief adding that past data of rainfall was considered while making monsoon emergency plan for the city. Like the previous year, a fully integrated monsoon control room was established at WASA’s head office.

The PDMA has also held meetings with the district emergency operation centres across the Punjab. District administrations in the Punjab were asked to ensure that drains in their jurisdictions were checked on a daily basis and cleaned in a timely manner.

However, slackness was observed in some districts during the monsoon season.

A senior officer of the PDMA, seeking anonymity, said that lack of funds for purchasing basic tools and improving infrastructure to combat urban flooding was one of the biggest problems. He says that there are certain gaps and constraints in the implementation of the flood emergency plans in every district. These include a low-morale water rescue staff; communication gaps between related departments; and unavailability of proper logistics to reach disaster-hit areas.

For its part, the PDMA has directed all officers to secure complete information about their districts, at risk of urban flooding, as well as villages in danger due to floods. The PDMA has also issued advisories to its district officers. It has directed district officers to upload daily data on the PDMA portal and to send prompt emergency reports to concerned agencies.

This year, the district administration of Lahore also ran an extensive awareness programme and media campaign to sensitise the general public about urban flooding and the need for necessary precautions.

Lahore division commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa says that the administration is fully prepared. He says that during the two previous heavy rain spells, urban flooding was dealt with as per their plan. The commissioner says that all civic departments and rescue services are ready to deal with any emergency situation.

The writer is a city reporter at The News