Heavy rain proves heavy on several localities

LAHORE : Scattered but heavy rain inundated several low-lying localities of the provincial metropolis on Saturday while the Met Office predicted more heavy rains in the City during the next 24 hours.

The rain started early Saturday and continued till the evening in various intervals. The highest rain was recorded at Pani Wala Talab where the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) recorded 132mm rain whereas 118mm rain was recorded at Farrukhabad and 105mm rain was recorded at Chowk Nakhuda. The rain forced the traffic to come at snail’s pace on various roads. However, officials of Wasa, district administration and other relevant departments remained on their toes to clear the accumulated rainwater from the City roads especially the low-lying localities.

Managing, Wasa Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz, Lahore deputy commissioner and other senior officers visited various localities and monitored the drainage operations. They also visited the disposal stations and inspected the machinery.

The Wasa MD directed all the field staff to remain vigilant in their respective areas to counter any untoward incident. The Met Office said that monsoon currents were still penetrating the upper and central parts of the country and were likely to exist for the next few days. A shallow westerly wave is also present over northern parts of the country. The Met Office officials predicted that more rain, wind and thundershower were expected in Kashmir, Islamabad, upper and central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan while isolated heavy falls were also expected in upper Punjab and upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during that period. They said hot and humid weather was likely to prevail elsewhere in the country. Rainfall was also recorded in other cities, including Malam Jabba, 68mm, Bannu, 41, Cherat, 23, Dera Ismail Khan city, 22, Balakot, Parachinar, 20, Upper Dir, 9, Peshawar (airport, 5mm, city, 4mm), Saidu Sharif, 3, Takht Bai, Kakul, 1.

Saturday's highest temperature was recorded at Dalbandin where the mercury reached 43°C while in Lahore it was 33.5°C and lowest was 24.8°C.