For Kohti dwellers, it never rains but it pours

PESHAWAR: Though people wait for rains in the hot summer, the shower brings a host of problems for residents of Kohati locality: floodwater inundating roads and streets, and shopkeepers seen pulling down shutters or trying to evacuate goods from their shops.

The rains usually inundate many areas of the provincial capital. However, for the residents of Qureshabad and Kohati localities, it never rains but it pours. 

A few weeks ago, a similar flood amid a rain shower broke the wall of a residential colony, named National Bank Colony in Kohati at about 2am in the night. People from the neighbourhoods rushed to the colony at midnight to evacuate goods and children from the flood-hit houses.

The shopkeepers in the area are the worst sufferers in case of a flood, as all their shops, despite being constructed a few feet above the road, are inundated and they have to evacuate things from their shops and renovate their shops after each flood. 

Every time there is a rain shower, the road from Qureshabad up to Kohati Gate becomes a no-go zone for motorists as the road and streets are inundated and they present the view of a canal, with lots of garbage and other dirt flowing on its surface. 

Sunday’s rain shower also troubled the residents, as people were seen cleaning their houses of the floodwater and garbage.

The flooding of Kohati locality is a routine happening, which is even older than many residents of the area. There are people who do not even remember a time when this problem never existed. 

The first reason is that the place is a low-lying area and rainwater usually flows from two different directions towards the Kohati locality, ie from Wazirbagh Road and Sard Chah Gate. Recently, the elected local government representatives widened an underground nullah in Kohati to deal with the issue of flooding.

The only solution, in view of some local elders, is that the water flow of the upper localities is diverted to somewhere else and not let flow towards the low-lying Kohati.

Nazim of the area, Muhammad Amjad, told The News that they recently widened the drain under the road in Kohati. “In the past, the underground drain used to get blocked and the water would inundate the road in Kohati, but the problem was solved recently when we widened the drain because now it remains flowing,” he added.

However, he added that only in rains, the road from Qureshabad up to Kohati Chowk gets inundated by flood because it is a low-lying area.

“We have asked the municipal authorities to regularly clean the underground nullah in Kohati but they don’t clean it regularly, this is why water overflows in rains and the road is inundated. As a result, we start efforts on our own to help people,” he added.