Residents of Korangi’s Model Colony to lay sewerage lines themselves

Residents of District Korangi’s Model Colony have decided to lay sewerage lines in their locality themselves, as the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB) has failed to clear the choked-up sewers in the area for around three weeks now despite repeated promises.

Sewage has inundated Model Colony’s Liaquat Ali Khan Road in Union Committee (UC)-1 so badly that the wastewater has flowed inside several shops and houses. Business life in the area has come to a complete standstill.

“We are unable to run our shops in the area,” said a shopkeeper of Khan Medical Store, Zeeshan Ahmed, who also lives in the locality.

There is knee-deep sewage in front of the shops. “How can we expect customers to make their way to our shops? How can we open our shops?” he said angrily.

Ahmed lamented that several complaints were made to the KWSB, but its officials always gripe about lack of funds and advise them to pool money to get their sewerage lines cleared. “If we need to get the sewerage lines cleared ourselves, what’s the point of paying our monthly bills to the water board?”

Even the area’s elected councillor, Muhammad Danish of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, has lost all hope in the KWSB. “Allah save us from the wrath of the water board,” said Danish while talking to The News.

The councillor lamented that they have been visiting the KWSB’s office for the past one week, but no one there has been paying any heed to them. He said the water board’s officials keep promising to send the required machinery and labour, but they never arrive in the area.

After Malir’s six UCs were merged into District Korangi, said Danish, the Model Colony area also fell under Korangi. He added that the entire Model Colony is badly affected due to sewage, especially the low-lying areas.

The councillor said that in Saudabad, Kausar Town and Liaquat Market, sewage never stops flowing onto the roads. “We are left with no other option but to throw this sewage at the KWSB office now.”

Shopkeeper Ahmed has already been collecting funds from the residents and other shopkeepers of the area. He said that if the KWSB does not send its machinery, they will get the sewerage pipes cleared and repaired on their own before Friday.

“We have already taken private labour on board,” he said, adding that once they get the sewers cleared on their own, they will stop paying the water board their monthly bills.

Lack of concern

A week ago the KWSB had released the official phone numbers of the superintendent engineers of all districts of the city, including the chief engineer sewerage, Saleem Ahmed, through a press statement and asked the residents to contact these officials in case of any problem.

However, no official of the board was available to the elected councillor of the area or any resident. Even when The News contacted KWSB Managing Director Asad Ullah Khan, he as usual did not respond, nor did Saleem Ahmed or the board’s spokesperson Rizwan Ahmed.

However, District Korangi Superintendent Engineer Saeed Sheikh had told The News this past Monday that the machinery would reach the area by Tuesday to start the cleaning and repair work.

He explained that after the recent rainfall in the city, the 24-inch-diameter sewerage line in the area had collapsed at three points, two of which were repaired.

As for the one at Liaquat Ali Khan Road in front of the Saeed Super Store, Sheikh said that there was extreme flow of sewage, due to which they were unable to dig up the area to replace the line.

He said they would clear the water flow of all the branch lines in the area through a winch and then dig up the road to replace the broken sewerage line, which would take a day or two.

When this correspondent of The News visited the areas with Sheikh on Friday, no machinery or KWSB staff had reached there until then.

Sheikh explained how difficult it had become to manage the Model Colony area after the new delimitations. The six former UCs of District Malir that are now under District Korangi, he said, do not have funds and even offices yet.

On Friday, he nominated Dilawar as the new assistant executive engineer for Model Colony and assured that the problem would be resolved soon.

Meanwhile, Dilawar explained that 36-inch-diameter sewerage lines in the Saudabad area, which lies in District Malir and is adjacent to Model Colony, have collapsed. Until those lines are not repaired, he said, the Model Colony area will remain inundated with sewage.

KWSB officials maintained on Thursday night that their teams were on the ground and vowed that the issue would be resolved in a few days.