Combating urban flooding in monsoon: Wasa speeds up work on two water reservoirs

LAHORE:To combat urban flooding in the coming monsoon, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has accelerated construction of two new underground water reservoirs to store rainwater.

Both the reservoirs will be completed before the coming monsoon season and will store more than three million gallons of water, which will be later used by PHA for gardening purposes as well as fire brigade vehicles to extinguish fire.

Wasa is the first agency in Pakistan, which introduced underground rainwater storage tanks to combat urban flooding, said Wasa Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz. He said President Arif Alvi appreciated the project and wanted to replicate the project in Karachi.

In 2020, Wasa completed its first underground rainwater storage tank on Lawrence Road which proved to be a successful project during the previous monsoon rains as it stored 1.4 million gallons of rainwater. This water was later used by PHA for gardening while fire brigade vehicles used it to extinguish the fire.

Wasa MD said that to hide the Lawrence Road’s rainwater storage tank, two tennis courts were constructed above it. The construction of rainwater reservoirs on Kashmir Road and Sheranwala Gate was also accelerated.

Kashmir Road and Sheranwala Gate were two of the 26 sore points of the provincial metropolis where rainwater remained stagnant disrupting the traffic as well as causing inconvenience to the citizens, Wasa MD said.

He said that Kashmir Road’s rainwater storage reservoir would be constructed under the garden of Alhamra Art Council, Sheranwala Gate’s reservoir would be constructed under a PHA park and after construction Wasa would restore the both the gardens to their original shape.

Giving technical details, Wasa Director Sohail Cheema said that estimated cost of Kashmir Road’s reservoir was Rs199.200 million and the catchment area was 26-acre. He said this covered RCC storage tank with a capacity of 1.50 million gallons while two 10cfs pumps would be installed at this reservoir whereas a rainwater drain would also be constructed to send rainwater in the storage tank. He said that the storage capacity of this reservoir was much two time more than the ponding area.

Similarly, the estimated cost of the Sheranwala Water Tank was Rs197.610 million and it would be constructed under a park of PHA, which would be restored after construction, Cheema said. He said the catchment area of this tank was 55-acre while the tank’s storage capacity was 1.50 million gallons. He said that gratings would be installed on both the tanks to avoid intake of garbage and after completion one or two Wasa employees would be deputed on each tank for necessary look after. He added that water hydrants would also be installed on both the reservoirs.

Meanwhile, Wasa MD chaired a meeting on annual development plans of the agency in head office here Wednesday. He was told that in the financial year 2020-21, 31 development projects were launched and work was started on projects costing a total of Rs8.977 billion.

He said out of the total amount, Rs1.22 billion were received from the Punjab government and by June 30, 2021, all the funds allocated for all development projects would be utilised. Wasa MD said that 100 percent utilisation of funds allocated for water sector projects was a great achievement. He said development projects included Haji Camp Drain, Lawrence Road Water Tank, Sewer for Sultan Ahmed Road Ichhra and Sewer for Moin Road New Muslim Town. He revealed that water supply lines of Johar Town UC 22, 21, 20 would be completed at a cost of Rs170 million. Similarly, Trunk Saver was completed in Green Town at a cost of Rs208 million.