Rawalpindi: WASA puts off Leh dredging until end of monsoon

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Agency will clear nullah of waste ahead of rainy season to ensure smooth flow of water
* Dredging will be carried out after monsoon

By Aamir Yasin

RAWALPINDI: Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) has shelved its plans to dredge Leh nullah for now citing limited time available for the exercise ahead of monsoon, which is a few weeks away.

Now, as an interim arrangement, the agency will clear the nullah from garbage in and around 11 bridges from New Kattarian to Ammar Chowk at the cost of Rs 9 million so as to ensure smooth flow of water.

The WASA says the nullah ‘clearance’ set to get underway today (Thursday) will prevent flooding of low-lying areas during the monsoon, which is expected to be heavy this year.

The Punjab government has allocated Rs 90 million for pre-monsoon Leh nullah dredging but the agency says time ahead of monsoon is too little to successfully carry out the exercise even if heavy machine and manpower is employed.

According to an official, the dredging would have been completed before the start of monsoon had the provincial government released the sought-after funding for it on time.

He said the situation had left the agency with two options for the moment either to begin dredging forthwith and continue with it even during monsoon, or clear the nullah from solid waste in areas vulnerable to flooding ahead of imminent rainy season and later doing full-fledged dredging of Leh. He said the WASA had opted for the latter.

According to the official, between New Kattarian and Ammar Chowk, there’re 11 points in the city, where nullah could burst its banks in case of heavy monsoon.

These points are in New Kattarian, Khayaban-e-Sir Syed, Dhoke Dalal, Kashmir Colony, Akalgarh, Dhoke Ratta, Ratta Amral, Mohanpura, City Saddar Road, Rialto Chowk and Gwalmandi.

He said the ‘solid waste clearance’ of nullah from May 21 to June 20 would be followed be proper degrading after monsoon. He said the post-monsoon nullah degrading costing Rs 81 million would begin in September.

According to him, the agency would dredge Leh three feet deep from New Kattarian to Ammar Chowk so as to remove waste of all kinds.

Meanwhile, the Leh nullah degrading came under discussion during a meeting of district government, WASA, RCB, CDA and JICA officials here on Tuesday.

The meeting decided that the RCB and the CDA would also clear Leh of waste in their respective areas when degrading by the WASA got underway after monsoon. According to the decision, the CDA will dredge the nullah upstream and the RCB downstream.

The meeting also decided that Rawal Town Municipal Administration and Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) would warn Leh bank encroachers of strict action if illegal structures were not done away immediately. Such encroachments are in Kattarian, Dhoke Dalal, Gwalmandi, City Saddar Road, Mareer Hassan and Dhoke Chiraghdin.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg11_1