Wasa demands Rs1 bn for water reservoirs to combat flooding

LAHORE: To combat urban flooding, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has asked the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to provide a fund of around Rs1 billion for construction of 11 underground water reservoirs in the provincial metropolis.

Recently, Wasa has constructed an underground water reservoir to store rainwater at Lawrence Road where during the recent monsoon spell Wasa stored 15 lakh gallons of rainwater. This water was later used for gardening purposes.

Wasa’s Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz while talking with the scribe said that the agency’s measures to curb urban flooding were appreciated across the country and now the federal ministry of water resources has called a meeting on 5 October in Islamabad where a Wasa team will give presentation to the delegations from all the other provinces.

In response to a letter of Wasa, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources said “We appreciate your concern to harness storm water in Lahore to safeguard human life and public & private properties.

In the above context, it is stated that this office being technical arm of Ministry of Water Resources has prepared 4th National Flood Protection Plan (10 years Plan NFPP-IV) costing Rs332.246 billion. The plan has been prepared in close consultation with all provincial and federal government organisations/stakeholders concerned. It was approved by CCl in its meeting held in May 2017. It covers both structural and non-structural measures. The Umbrella PC-I for implementation of NFPP-IV is being processed for the final approval by CDWP/ECNEC.

The same stands approved by the respective PDWP's of four provinces. The plan inter alia includes 20 major cities, including Lahore, for carrying out studies to address urban drainage problem in the context of urban flood management.

Wasa MD said that the agency would brief the upcoming meeting about the design of a comprehensive project to cater urban flooding. He said that the meeting would also discuss existing and emerging issues related to urban flooding in the cities identified in 4th National Flood Protection Plan and a likely roadmap for conducting the studies will be devised. He said draft TORs for the proposed studies on urban flooding would also be discussed in the upcoming meeting.

Answering a question about Wasa’s plan to construct 11 more rainwater harvesting reservoirs in the city, he said Wasa had asked the ministry to provide a fund of around Rs1 billion to the agency. He said that he had also met President Dr Arif Alvi and briefed him about the rainwater harvesting projects being constructed in Lahore and the president desired to replicate these measures across the country especially in Karachi, which witnessed worst urban flooding in recent monsoon.