ISLAMABAD: Punjab Housing and Local Government Minister Bilal Yasin on Thursday credited a Rs500 billion ($1.8 billion) government investment in drainage infrastructure for preventing the kind of prolonged urban flooding that submerged several Punjab cities during last year’s monsoon, even as the current rain spell has left at least 17 people dead in the province.
Gujranwala recorded a record 245mm of rainfall this week, with Lahore receiving 123mm, Sialkot 139mm and Mandi Bahauddin 138mm, according to the Water and Sanitation Agency. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority said 12 of the 17 deaths in Punjab were caused by building collapses, two by lightning strikes and three by electrocution, while rising water levels in the Chenab prompted a moderate flood warning at Marala Headworks. Water levels also rose at the Khanki and Qadirabad barrages after India released excess water without officially confirming the volume.
“I witnessed it myself. It rained 150mm and there was water on the ground, but within 80 to 85 minutes, it was gone,” Yasin said at a press conference, describing drainage at Lahore’s low-lying Laxmi Chowk area, one of several neighborhoods he said used to remain flooded for days before this year’s infrastructure upgrades.
He said the provincial government, under the direction of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, had increased the number of functional underground water storage tanks from five, across five major cities last year, to 41 across the province this year, alongside the deployment of around 1,000 pieces of modern machinery.
Yasin said the province had also carried out a desilting campaign between May 30 and mid-June, clearing 700 to 750 open drains and disposing of about 650,000 tons of solid waste, while the capacity of disposal stations had been increased threefold.
He said the government’s investment in housing and local government infrastructure this year stood at roughly Rs500 billion, compared with an annual development budget of around Rs25 billion ($90 million) to Rs30 billion ($108 million) in previous years.
The minister rejected criticism from opposition politicians who said Punjab’s cities remained submerged, saying government data showed drainage times had fallen sharply compared with previous years even as rainfall intensity remained high.
The flooding follows a warning PDMA Punjab issued on July 20, four days before the current spell began, flagging the Chenab, Jhelum and Ravi stretch of rivers, and naming Gujranwala, Sialkot, Lahore and Narowal among the districts at risk of urban flooding.
Minister of Climate Change Musadik Malik said in May that Pakistan’s last four major floods had killed more than 6,000 people, left 20,000 injured or disabled, and displaced roughly 40 million people nationwide.
