People living in low-lying areas of Pindi under fear of flood

Rawalpindi: The start of rain in monsoon always sets alarm bells ringing for the people living in low-lying areas of Rawalpindi who always fear for their life and property due to constant threat of floods.

Muzaffar Ahmad, a resident of Warsi Mohalla, said, “All my life I have seen people of our locality fearing for floods in the monsoon season. Sometime in the past I thought that we would get rid of this threat in the coming years but it never happened. I still hope that a time will come when the issue of flooding will be resolved once for all,” he said.

Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar during his recent visit to Rawalpindi stated that the Punjab government was determined to start the Leh Expressway project to protect the public from flooding during monsoon season.

Irshad Rao, a resident of Phagwari area, said Nullah Leh often gets choked at various points every year during the monsoon rains that increases risk of flooding in low-lying areas.

“The government should find out a solution to this problem or provide the people with alternative land and loans to build their new homes,” he said. The work on desilting and dredging of Nullah Leh was carried out this month with the help of D-wiring set, screw jetting machine, water bowzers and sewer cleaning machines. Nazir Bhatti, a resident of Dhoke Najju, said heavy rainfall couple of days back raised water level in the Nullah Leh due to which we stayed awake in the night.

“It is really strange that the issue of Nullah Leh haunting the people for last many decades is yet to be resolved. The concerned authorities should now give this issue a serious thought to protect life and property of the people,” he said.