A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC), led by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, expressed disappointment at the Defence Housing Authority (DHA)’s failure to comply with previous court directives.
The bench was hearing a petition from Defence and Clifton residents of the society seeking the appointment of a sanitation engineer to carry out a thorough assessment of the drainage infrastructure in the area.
The court ordered the DHA to convene a meeting with engineers recommended by the residents in order to resolve the drainage issue in the region and present a report within a month.
The SHC had previously asked the housing authority, in September, to have a meeting with qualified engineers recommended by the petitioners and to submit meeting minutes at the subsequent meeting.
The technical experts from the NED University had briefed the court that severe floods in 2020 and this year in Karachi in general, and in DHA in particular, are caused by a lack of design and maintenance of the city’s drainage infrastructure.
They further explained that Some drains accommodate sewerage in addition to rainwater, which is contradictory to their intended purpose. Stormwater drains are designed to handle just rainfall, resulting in them possibly overflowing if half of their capacity is used for sewerage Additionally, the drain effluents are in a poor hydraulic state, and the overall structure requires restoration and maintenance.
The plaintiffs claimed that the city’s citizens, which include the DHA and Clifton residents, had suffered damages worth millions of rupees as a result of severe floods following the rainfall.Â
They expressed that the authorities had received millions of rupees in taxes through various sources, yet they spent none on the city’s drainage system.
They had requested the establishment of a committee to perform a thorough analysis of the drainage system, as well as directives for the DHA and cantonment boards to take all required efforts to build effective stormwater drainage.
