LAHORE - As the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) is yet to lay new drainage and sewerage lines in Gulberg, the monsoon season every year brings miseries to the residents who face troubles due to accumulated rain water which takes hours to recede in the absence of any proper drainage system in this so-called posh locality. This long-standing problem has also got aggravated due to unplanned commercialisation, which is visible in the form of numerous shopping plazas, restaurants and hotels. The drainage problem at MM Alam Road and its adjacent residential and commercial areas has gone out of hand after years of neglect. Inundated streets in adjoining localities of Main Boulevard also present a picture of small canals running across the houses. As both the sewerage and drainage systems are not working properly, the sewerage lines get choked quite often and stinky water appears on streets. The MM Alam Road and its adjacent sectors come under deep water when it rains, especially during monsoon, which causes great inconvenience for vehicular traffic and pedestrians alike. Wasa sources said that the Gulberg drainage scheme costing Rs 208 million had been approved and was to be executed in 2007, but it got delayed due to non-availability of funds and government's lack of interest to get it implemented. They informed that Wasa had submitted amended PC-1 of the Gulberg drainage scheme to Planning and Development Department for approval with revised rates as the cost has now gone up to Rs 279 million. Funds had also been earmarked in the current Wasa annual budget, sources added. As per Wasa officials, the agency would lay down the network of many small drains at MM Alam Road to be connected with big drains (3 to 4 diameter in the beginning and 7 to 8 diameter at the end) at Shams-u-Din Road to dispose of storm water with rapid pace. The big drain passing through Virk Chowk, Hussain Chowk, Kalma Chowk, Ghalib Market, Firdous Market, Makka Colony. Mandina Colony, Nawaz Sharif Colony and Ferozepur Road would end up in Sattukatla drain. It may be recalled that main sewer had already been laid down at MM Alam Road but it could not function, as neither it had been connected with all houses through small sewer pipes. Wasa MD Javed Iqbal told The Nation that the agency was going to launch the Gulberg drainage scheme after getting it approved from the department concerned. He said Wasa was committed to improve its operations to provide early relief to the public. Wasa director (Engineering Wing) Hijaz Qureshi said the scheme would end the sewerage and drainage problem of the Gulberg. He said it had been submitted to P&D for approval. It merits mentioning here that two types of sewerage lines have been laid in the City - the open drains and underground pipelines. Technically open drains were built for storm water while underground pipelines were laid down to dispose off sewerage water. Unplanned City growth and development of sewerage infrastructure by WASA at random (which was never done according to master plan of the city), have resulted in mixing up of the both. Whenever there was some problem in underground sewerage pipelines to dispose off wastewater, the department instead of addressing the issue made ad hoc arrangements and used open drains for wastewater by setting up a small disposal station.