SHC unhappy with DHA for failing to comply with directives to solve drainage issue

The Sindh High Court once again directed the Defence Housing Authority on Tuesday to hold a meeting with the relevant engineers proposed by Defence and Clifton residents to sort out the drainage issue in the upscale area and submit a report within a month.

Hearing a petition of DHA and Clifton residents seeking the appointment of a qualified sanitation engineer to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the drainage infrastructure in the area, a division bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi took exception to the DHA’s failure to comply with earlier directives of the court.

The petitioners’ counsel submitted that they had written a letter to the DHA for convening a meeting along with experts in view of the court order, but DHA did not respond to the letter nor did it convene a meeting.

The DHA counsel submitted that the petitioners’ counsel sought a full video recording of the proceedings of the meeting and the petitioners intended to bring 13 experts to the meeting, which was unreasonable.

The counsel undertook that the DHA would allow the petitioners along with their limited designated experts to attend meetings to be convened by the DHA within 15 working days. The court allowed the petitioners to attend these meetings along with two experts designated by them in each petition, directing that the names of two experts be provided in advance to the DHA within seven working days. It said the residents should be kept informed and taken into confidence about drainage system in Defence and Clifton.

The court directed that a presentation on the work to be done for the project is to be given to the participants of the meeting by the DHA as well as their consultants. It observed that the petitioners and experts should be provided time to give their opinion before the officials of the DHA and their consultants and submit a report within one month.

The SHC had earlier directed the DHA to hold a meeting with the relevant engineers proposed by the petitioners and submit the minutes of the meeting. Technical experts had earlier informed the court that the existing storm water drains in DHA are unable to handle rainwater in addition to the sewage flow and domestic waste, significantly reducing their design capacity.

Filing a report on the drains vetted by NED engineers, the experts said extreme flooding in 2020 and this year in Karachi in general and in DHA in particular are recent examples of flooding due to a lack of planning and maintenance of the drainage system of a cosmopolitan city.

The report stated that some drains are used as combined sewer and rain drains, which goes against the purpose for which they are designed. The experts said storm water drains are meant to handle only rainwater, so they will likely overflow when they are already handling the sewage flow at 50 per cent of their capacity.

The report said the outfalls of the drains are in a poor hydraulic condition, and that the entire system is in need of rehabilitation and maintenance. Residents had filed a petition seeking effective infrastructure for the sewerage and drainage systems in the area, and compensation for the damage to the lives and properties suffered by residents during the monsoon rains of 2020.

The petitioners, including Azar Kalwar, had maintained that at least 41 people were killed across Karachi due to the rains on August 27 and 28, 2020. They said the city’s people, including DHA and Clifton residents, had to suffer losses worth millions of rupees due to catastrophic flooding after the rains. They pointed out that the authorities had been receiving millions of rupees in taxes under different heads, but they had been spending nothing on the drainage infrastructure of the city.

The petitioners had sought the formation of a committee to conduct a comprehensive evaluation in respect of the drainage infrastructure, and directions for the DHA and cantonment boards to take all necessary steps to construct efficient storm water drainage

systems in their respective jurisdictions.