NHA blames urban flooding for ‘ill-planned’ sewerage system

ABBOTTABAD: The National Highway Authority (NHA) on Monday clarified that it had no role in causing urban flooding in the cantonment areas of Abbottabad and blamed the accumulation of rainwater on the ‘ill-planned’ sewerage system.

The public relations directorate of the NHA in Islamabad reacted to the statement of the chief executive officer of Cantonment Board Abbottabad published in a section of the press. The directorate said the officer was not aware of the ground realities.

The spokesman said that the National Highway Authority was responsible for roadside drains i.e. for carrying the rainwater from roads to its cross-drainage structures whereas in the present case all the sewerage lines controlled by Cantonment Board and TMA were being dropped in drains of National Highway Authority. These drains were not planned for carrying this sort of discharge, he added.

It is worth mentioning here that NHA is rehabilitating the existing carriageway under Annual Maintenance Plan from “Allaho Chowk to Mirpur Police Station.”No separate drain project is being carried out but in Package-II (Abbottabad Built Up Area) the rehabilitation of the existing drain from “Supply Bazaar to Jub Pull” is underway.

Several meetings with local administration i. e. commissioner, deputy commission and TMA officials have been conducted and the matter to clear the cross drain outlet has been discussed. It was pointed out that the Cantonment Board and TMA were collecting tax from the locals for the same. It was added that NHA has built ample cross drainage structures throughout the built-up area of Abbottabad, so the urban flooding was caused due to the weak and ill-planned sewerage system of Abbottabad city.