Monsoon exposes flood failures

The 90-day pre-monsoon and monsoon season ended on a tragic note in Rawalpindi, claiming 14 lives despite repeated assurances by the deputy commissioner and managing director of the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) that 100% flood-prevention arrangements had been completed. Several children who drowned during the season were found days later, with their bodies trapped in bushes along Nullah Leh, eight to 10 kilometres from the locations where they had fallen into the water. Even after the end of the monsoon season, more than 150 deep and uncovered manholes across the city remain potential death traps, as the administration has failed to install covers or protective grilles despite announcing such measures over the past three months. The deaths began during the pre-monsoon period when seven-year-old Visal drowned near Kacha Stop in Westridge-III. His body was recovered a week later, eight kilometres away near the Nullah Leh bridge at Gawalmandi. The incidents continued throughout the monsoon. Seven-year-old Abu Bakar drowned in Misrial's Friends Colony, while seven-year-old Zahid drowned in Nullah Leh in Gulistan Colony. When Zahid's father attempted to rescue him, he too was swept away and drowned. In Rawat's Chakbeli Khan area, two brothers, seven-year-old Asim and nine-year-old Muneeb, drowned in a rainwater drain. In Rawat's Kharkan area, 14-year-old Abdul Manan and 11-year-old Ayan also drowned in a rainwater channel. Thirteen-year-old Areeba Tayyab drowned in a rainwater drain in Gulzar-e-Quaid, while six-year-old Hasnain was swept away by a rainwater channel near Girja Road. Five-year-old Hareem drowned at Lunda Bazaar, Bohar Bazaar Chowk, but her body has yet to be recovered. In Gujar Khan, two friends drowned while bathing, while 35-year-old Rizwan was killed when a dilapidated building near Lunda Bazaar collapsed during heavy rain. Following the drowning incidents involving children, Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Nadeem Nasir's response was to impose restrictions on children leaving their homes when torrential rain began. However, no financial assistance was provided to the families of the children who drowned, nor did officials visit their homes to offer condolences or provide meaningful relief to residents of low-lying areas. The monsoon also exposed the vulnerability of the recently renovated Raja Bazaar, where around Rs700 million had been spent on modernisation. The market was inundated four times during the season, with floodwater reaching five feet and causing losses worth millions of rupees to shopkeepers. Despite the end of the monsoon, the damaging effects of the floods remain visible in streets and neighbourhoods across low-lying areas. WASA, the Municipal Corporation and the district administration have yet to present a definitive solution to the 18-kilometre-long Nullah Leh and the city's 15 major rainwater channels, which have repeatedly devastated Rawalpindi over the past five decades. So far, the authorities have relied largely on proposals rather than implementing a permanent project. Chairman of the Citizens Action Committee Malik Zaheer Awan said flooding could not be prevented until the systems carrying rainwater and sewage were separated. He proposed laying 12-foot-wide sewage pipelines along both sides of Nullah Leh to carry the city's wastewater, while reserving the central channel exclusively for rainwater. He said the project had previously been proposed during the tenure of former Rawalpindi Development Authority chairman Tariq Murtaza, with an estimated cost of Rs30 billion and financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank. He urged the authorities to revive the project immediately. District Bar Association president Malik Sajid Mahmood Awan said the destruction caused by Nullah Leh and the 15 rainwater channels was affecting the entire city. He called for encroachments to be removed forcefully in accordance with the official maps of Nullah Leh and its rainwater channels prepared by the Survey of Pakistan in 1965. He suggested that people affected by the removal of encroachments be provided three-marla government plots around Adiala Road, saying this would allow the original 800-to-1,000-foot width of Nullah Leh to be restored. The channel's width has now been reduced to between 300 and 550 feet because of encroachments, he said. Awan warned that without restoring the original waterway, every other solution would result in the waste of hundreds of millions or billions of rupees. Rawalpindi DC said all drains would be cleaned before the next monsoon, while covers and protective grilles would be installed on manholes. He said the drains would undergo complete desilting and deepening. He added that throwing construction material and waste into Nullah Leh and other rainwater channels would be declared a criminal offence.