Chairman Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA)/ Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) Tariq Mehmood Murtaza has said that to solve the problems of flash flooding and urban flooding in twin cities the only permanent solution is to restructure the main Nullahs of the city especially Nullah Lei.
He said that bad planning of towns near the nullahs is causing blockage of flood water during the monsoon season and after restructuring of nullahs especially Leh nullah which was main watercourse of flood of twin cities problem could be solved permanently. He said so far low lying areas around the nullah were concerned we had dug wells to resolve the water issue
Nallah Lai passes through very congested area so its widening is another challenge. But once completed 1600 people were living around can be saved from the damage. WASA has provided compensation to victims and had removed many encroachments from near the Nullah but still many remain dangerously close to the Nullah. Twin cities saw one of the worst urban flooding scenarios in the month of July wreaking havoc on cars and motorcycles on the road causing damages worth millions. The E-11 sector of Islamabad was the most affected. Authorities claim the flash flood was caused by a “cloudburst”.
WASA had also launched pre-monsoon cleanliness digging campaign of main nullahs of the city to avoid any untoward incident.
