Washed out roads

I was recently hosting some guests from the US who asked me to accompany them to a few well-known tourist resorts in Swat and the other northern areas. However, a close friend who had been to these areas a few days earlier said the roads to the resorts had been washed away after the heavy monsoon rainfall, making travel unsafe. My guests returned to the US without visiting the resorts they had planned to see before reaching Pakistan. Later, I learned through media reports that most of the roads all over the country, including in Karachi and other big cities, had been badly damaged due to heavy rainfall.

One wonders why a proper drainage system is not taken into account while constructing roads. As a result, we incur heavy expenditures when these roads have to be repaired after floods, besides the damage caused to vehicles and increased risk of accidents. The authorities should take this issue seriously as the revenue loss due to failed roads is exorbitant.

Dr Najeeb A Khan

Islamabad