Rain severely damaged sewerage infrastructure of Karachi: KWSB

The recent spells of monsoon rain in the city have severely damaged the sewerage infrastructure of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), said a statement issued by the water board on Friday.

The KWSB said that the rainwater had carried garbage, gravel, stones, pieces of wood and leaves inside the sewage lines of the city due to which the lines had choked. “This has increased problems in the sewerage system,” the statement read.

Due to the pressure of rainwater, the KWSB statement said, several sewerage lines had collapsed. A few of such damaged lines had been replaced, according to the board while the others were being repaired.

KWSB Managing Director (MD) Asadullah Khan held a meeting with the high-level officials of the board and formed a task force under the supervision of the board’s chief engineer sewer, Saleem Ahmed. Superintendent engineers of all this six districts of the city were also included in the task force.

All the machines of the KWSB, according to the statement, were being utilised for the cleaning and repair work of the sewage lines.

According to its spokesperson, the water board had cleared the entire area of Nazimabad from sewage and placed covers on all the manholes in the area. Meanwhile, the cleaning work of sewage lines in Surjani Town was under way through the winching process, through which stones, gravel, wild bushes and grass that had swept inside the sewage lines through the rainwater were being taken out.

The KWSB also claimed to have covered all the manholes in Yousuf Goth and cleaned all the sewage lines in Liaquatabad. In Karimabad, a sewage line of 27-inch diameter that had collapsed due to the rain was replaced, the KWSB said, adding that another sewage line of six-inch diameter had been replaced in Sindhi Muslim Society.

The water board said after the rain, residents of Dehli Muslim Society complained about polluted water coming from water lines due to the collapse of a 10-inch-diameter sewage line. The KWSB maintained that the sewage line had now been repaired by the board.