Government under fire for defunct drainage system

Several areas in the city were affected by water logging as the drainage system failed yet again in the city making it inconvenient for people to walk on roads.
Officials said the present drainage system had lost the carrying capacity as the authorities failed to clean the drains after September floods.
“The small drains in Lal Chowk were made during the regime of (former CM) Bakshi (Ghulam Muhammad) Sahib and were not meant to take on such a heavy load. It is too smaller infrastructure for the inhabitants and needs a massive revamp,” said an official of Srinagar Municipal Corporation.
He said only 20-30 percent areas are covered with drainage system while the maximum portion is left out. “I fail to understand why people say the drainage system is defunct here while it doesn’t exist at first place. It will only fail once it exists,” the official said.
He said the drainage network was not sufficient as per the requirement of the city. “Lot of work has to be done to have a proper drainage network in city,” the officials said.
Chief Engineer Urban Environmental Engineering Department (UEED), Muhammad Haneef Lone, said most of the places were cleared while dewatering of left out places will be done on Wednesday to clear the whole city.
He said there was a need of comprehensive drainage system besides upgrading the dewatering stations. “We need to install submersible pumps which can function even if they get submerged in water. In last year floods we had to clear the pumps from water and later press them for dewatering,” Lone said.
Civil society activist Farooq Ahmad Dar said: “The issue is not to dewater the collected rainwater by pumps but to build a proper drainage system where excessive rainwater would not stay on surfaces but flow on sides of roads in their own channels.”
He said the drains constructed in the city were not technically sound as the engineers ignore the ratio of population in area which creates inundation during rains.
“The small drains in city are constructed with technical flaws as the engineers reduce the blocks in order to exceed the length which is not technically good. Drains should be dug deep to increase their carrying capacity,” Dar said.
He accused the government of discriminating against the valley, saying allocation of funds for nine sub-divisions of city was same as that of one sub-division of Jammu region. “The total allocation of drainage funds for JK state is Rs 13 crores of which Rs 6.5 crores are allotted for nine sub-divisions of valley and Rs. 6.5 crore were allocated to one sub-division of Jammu,” he said.