News
Monday, July 18, 2011
District admin gets alert to meet emergency as Leh swells
Staff Report
RAWALPINDI: The district and rescue authorities are gearing up to cope with any emergency related to floods in the city, as Nullah Leh during recent spell of rains swelled to alarming level and sirens were sounded, but no one has still noticed the presence of a number of makeshift cottages on the banks of the nullah near Dhoke Chragh Din.
So far these cottages have neither removed nor the dwellers were asked to move to safer places that were set up by the gypsies on the banks of nullah as every year the Rawal Town administration and other authorities start evacuation of the people living on the banks of Nullah Leh during monsoon season.
As per details there are more than three to four dozen cottages of gypsy families on the banks of the nullah that are spreading from Marrir Hassan to Dhoke Chiragh Din and if the water level rises to 20 feet certainly it will wash away these gypsy families’ cottages. The localities are more vulnerable during the rainy days because some other drains of the city join the Leh near Dhok Chragh Din and the main Nullah is swelled after the rain. The area residents and traders told this scribe that the gypsy families had been living for many months and during the current spell of rain in which the Leh swelled to the alert level these families were not even asked to move and if Leh swells more definitely it would prove devastative for the makeshifts.
Rawal Town officials said they were removing all the encroachments from the banks of Leh and during the ongoing campaign and in this regard before the recent spell some houses near New Katarian were demolished. Last month, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) after getting fund of Rs 47 million out of 93 million has started de-silting and dredging of Nullah Leh ahead of monsoon when the Leh swell caused damage to the low lying areas of the garrison city as according to some reports over 1,000 tons of garbage and construction material were thrown into the nullah daily.
It may be mentioned that floods in the Nullah Leh Basin occur during the monsoon season (July 1 to September 10) when the twin cities and adjoining areas receive heavy rainfall. The nullah has a length of about 30Km stretching from the federal capital to Rawalpindi. It has six major tributaries, three originating in the foothills of Islamabad and three joining it in Rawalpindi.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk