Even slum areas cleared of rainwater but not DHA, says SHC

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday asked the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) and the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) about the efforts they have made over the past two years for proper drainage of rainwater in their jurisdiction.

Hearing DHA and Clifton residents’ petitions seeking a qualified sanitation engineer’s appointment to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the drainage infrastructure in the area, an SHC division bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi said motorcyclists are being injured in accidents due to broken and submerged roads in DHA.

The court said that even the Katchi Abadis (slum areas) of Karachi have been cleared of rainwater, but not the DHA areas. The court added that broken roads are not being repaired on the pretext of more expected monsoon rains. The bench said Lyari’s situation might be better than DHA’s because half of DHA Phase-I has turned in a slum area. The bench added that houses have been built on natural storm water drains, with no proper mechanism to clear rainwater.

The court said that this case is pending for the past two years but no efforts for the redressal of the issue have been observed. The court asked the CBC’s counsel how the rainwater will be drained since it cannot be diverted to the sea.

The counsel said that private engineers have prepared recommendations for the drainage system in DHA, adding that the report has been submitted to the court. The bench asked why a drainage system has not been installed for other DHA phases despite the lapse of two years, and directed the counsel to inform the court about the efforts made for clearing rainwater. Granting the CBC’s application for urgent hearing, the bench adjourned the proceedings until Thursday.

DHA and Clifton residents had filed a petition seeking an effective infrastructure for the sewerage and drainage system in the area, and compensation for the damages to the lives and properties suffered by the residents during the monsoon rains of 2020.

A counsel for the petitioners also sought the details of the existing drainage infrastructure maps as well as the requisite support and assistance for such purpose. The petitioners — Azar Kalwar, and other DHA and Clifton residents — had maintained in their plea that at least 41 people were killed across Karachi due to the rains on August 27 and 28, 2020.

They said that the city’s people, including DHA and Clifton residents, had to suffer losses worth millions of rupees due to catastrophic flooding after the rains. Their counsels had informed the SHC during previous hearings that heavy rains had wreaked havoc on the city, and the authorities responsible for handling the situation had failed to perform their duties.

They said that there was a complete failure on the part of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, the cantonment boards, the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board, the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board, DHA and the Karachi Development Authority.

They pointed out that those authorities had been receiving millions of rupees in taxes under different heads but they had been spending nothing on the drainage infrastructure of the city.

The SHC was told that there should be a complete audit of the amount being received by those civic bodies because nothing was being spent on the maintenance of the sewerage infrastructure.

The petitioners sought the forming of a committee to conduct a comprehensive evaluation in respect of the drainage infrastructure, and directions for the DHA and cantonment boards to take all necessary steps to construct efficient storm water drainage systems in their respective jurisdictions.

The DHA had also filed a contingency plan based on the observations during the heavy rains of August 2020 to deal with any emergency that might arise due to future downpours.