KARACHI: Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar on Wednesday directed KMC officials concerned to expedite cleanliness of rain drains and asked the Sindh government to increase machinery so that the task could be completed at the earliest.
Currently, 40 excavators and 80 dumpers are taking part in the cleanliness being jointly done by the World Bank, the Sindh government and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. The World Bank has provided a fair amount of money to the Sindh government to carry out drains cleanliness. The Nullahs were not cleaned since 2018.
The mayor said this during his visit to different areas to review drains' cleanliness efforts. Akhtar visited Gujjar Nullah, Qalnadria Chowk, Cafe Piyala and Nazimabad.
Chairman of DMC Central, Rehan Hashmi, KMC's Senior Director (Coordination) Masood Alam, Senior Director (Municipal Services) Nauman Arshad and other officials were also present on the occasion.
Talking to media, Akhtar said that the funds provided by the World Bank should be utilized properly and target of cleanliness achieved and for that purpose increase in machinery was essential.
He said that during a meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah it was decided that the deputy commissioners would be provided with funds to carry out cleanliness of small drains in each district, but the funds were still not released.
He added that District Central began cleanliness on its own despite having limited resources, but the same could not be carried out in other districts.
He said that the chocked points should be fixed at the earliest or else the people would face difficulties. The water could not be drained out to big drains from small ones as the same were chocked and overflowing on the roads.
The mayor said that they were trying to complete cleanliness of those small drains at the earliest, adding that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was approached many times but to no avail.
He said the people could be provided relief through joint efforts and asked the Sindh government to increase machinery so that the work could be completed on time.
"Encroachments at Link Nullah in Kausar Niazi Colony have made cleanliness efforts very difficult," Akhtar added while saying that work should be done manually where machines could not reach.
The mayor was of the view that K-Electric didn't seem bothered to resolve issues being faced by the Karachiites, asking the power utility to ensure presence of its staff and vehicles to fix electric-related issues during the rains for saving valuable lives. He asked the people to avoid going out unnecessarily and keep themselves away from electric poles.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020