LAHORE - The Storm-Water Drainage System, planned from Haji Camp to River Ravi here to manage the rain and flood-water in the Lahore metropolis, will be completed in the next year.
This was informed by Deputy Managing Director Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) La-hore Aslam Khan Niazi while talking to mediamen, here on Saturday. He said that the city’s catchments areas receive an average annual downpour of 629-670mm, from which an average of 74.7 per cent of the rainwater comes about in the monsoon season. He said that this water causes flooding and water accumulation besides disturbing the entire life in the city.
He said that WASA had planned to manage this situation and chalked out a comprehensive plan, Monsoon Action Plan 2020, which involved a number of projects -- chiefly Law-rence Road Reservoir Project and Storm-Water Drainage Sys-tem, which covers the area from Haji Camp to the Ravi River.
Under the 11-kilometre long project, storm-water would be transported to Ravi River via Lakshmi Chowk, McLeod Road, Nabha Road, Chauburji and Shaam Nagar. He said that two sections of drains, including Haji Camp to The Mall, and Jain Mandir to Chauburji, had been made functional so far, which was 60 per cent of the total length of the project. However, he added that the work from Chauburji to Sham-nagar was under progress.
He said that work on the pro-ject was under way gradually as per provision of the funds, and the pace of the work depended on availability of the funds in the annual budget.
He said that no compromise would be made on the quality and standard of the project, according to the directions of Chief Minister Sardar Us-man Buzdar and timely comple-tion of the project would be ensured.
He hoped that now no water would accumulate at Lakshmi Chowk during the rainy season because of the project.
He said that the disposal station had been connected to two WAPDA feeders and in case, one of them suffered power outage, the second feeder would keep the dispos-al station working.
“In case both are shutdown, a generator will kick it into action, he added.
He said that in any situa-tion, now the disposal sta-tion would remain functional and rainwater would be cleared quickly. He hoped that the project would be completed in the mid of 2022.