ISLAMABAD-Rainfall brings joy and mostly pleases people with its freshness especially at this time of the year. However, the same rainfall is bringing a lot of worries and stress for the residents of Khanna East and are affecting the area adversely. The streets of the society get filled with the dirty water coming out of the overloading gutter pipelines whenever it rains. Not only this, the drainage pipes coming from colonies like falcon, KRL and Fizaia also open up at Khanna East adding more filth to the overall environment.
Furthermore, the statistics of dengue patients from Islamabad show that for the past four to five years, Khanna East contributes the most in the number of dengue patients in the capital. In addition, the greenbelt of Islamabad highway adjacent to Khanna East is also being affected by the dirty and smelly water coming out of the overloading gutter pipelines.
The dirty water that gets accumulated on the greenbelt and highway for days not only affects environment but also frustrates the flowing traffic. When questioned, Chief Commissioner Islamabad Amir Ahmed stated that their department was aware of the drainage problems occurring in Khanna East and they were already planning to find a way so that the issue could be resolved.
Amir revealed that he had recently met President Joint Action Committee Khanna East Islamabad Umair Raza Abbasi and listened to his details about the problems. The official also stated that he had also involved Chief Commissioner Rawalpindi over the matter as societies ahead of Khanna East from where the overloading drainage water comes are part of Rawalpindi and not Islamabad. The official also stated that the problem of greenbelt adjacent to Khanna East will also be resolved in the coming time.
Talking to The Nation, Umair stated that despite of numerous efforts done by their committee in this regard, the authorities have neglected this issue till now.
Umair shared a document with this correspondent which showed that the authorities had passed the making of a 6 feet broad sewerage pipeline with the help of WASA Rawalpindi and the project was given millions of rupees for its successive completion.
However, he stressed, no development in this regard was seen till now as the respective part of the highway passing in front of their colony is still worse in its condition. Explaining about the problems occurring in Khanna East, Umair explained that whenever it rains, the residents get upset as streets get filled with dirty and smelly water. Because of this, people living in Khanna East are restricted to their homes and can only pray for the rainfall to end so that the rising level of standing water in their streets may reduce, Umair said. He also revealed that most of the Dengue patients were emerging from the streets of their society. Umair stated that the dirty water which remains accumulated for days, leads to dengue. People’s health, their daily routine and environment, all were being affected by this one problem, said Umair.
Khanna East and the surrounding area is a vastly spread land which contains more than 60,000 people. The area has further 10 small towns, which sadly share the same pain and sufferings.