HYDERABAD: The city`s labyrinthine storm water drains have become a constant pain in the neck of both authorities and general public as the nullahs failed to serve their purpose in recent downpour and caused delay in the drainage of rainwater from different areas.

Despite hue and cry by general public and business community, the drains that pass through densely populated and commercial areas are so heavily clogged with solid waste that one could literally walk over their surface without getting bogged down.

The monsoon season usually continues till August but Hyderabad has a history of having torrential rains even during late monsoon season in September, yet the authorities fail to carry out an extensive desilting drive for various reasons, ranging from lack of funds and encroachments to misplaced priorities.

The authorities now mainly Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) -struggles for arranging fuel for the generators to run pumping stations in the absence of regular electricity supply thus creating more liabilities of contractors.

The areas as congested as Cloth Market have recently seen construction of another five-floor commercial building in the area. `Look at this building in the midst of Bangle Market. It is built on elevated surface and now in every heavy rain the runoff enters the market,` said a trader requesting anonymity.

He said that traders drained out rainwater from the market into the Bangle Market`s drain that remained completely clogged. This drain remained visibly and completely clogged with solid waste.

All major drains in the old city area have become a pain in the neck for authorities including HMC, Hyderabad Water & Sewerage Corporation (HW&SC) and civil administration.

Officials say the de-silting drive for these drains was a gigantic task. It could not be done due to encroachments, narrow passages and lack of funds.

Resultantly, the rainwater flooding the old city localities took plenty of time before it drained out, they said, adding besides, prolonged power outages also added to residents` woes.

The drains that carry different names like Sattar Shah, Domanwah, Talab No.3, Goods Naka, Odean Cinema, Liaquat Colony, Tando Yusuf etc. carrydrainage and rainwater runoff during monsoon season from densely-populated areas of Goods Naka, Liaquat Colony, Fakir ka Pir, Islamabad Mohallah, Cloth market, Sakhi Pir, Khai Road, Cheetal Chari, Shahdadpuri Mohallah wherefrom wastewater ends up in storm water drains.

Localities like Cloth Market, Liaquat Colony, Goods Naka are low-lying and hence face serious drainage issues during rains.

Before recent delimitations, Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) used to manage the drains but in 2013 the drains were placed under administrative domain of erstwhile Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

Then again the nullahs were handed back to the HMC. `When the drains were handed over to Wasa, resources including machinery and manpower were not transferred. Wasa managed them halfheartedly and till this day the drains are hardly manageable for a variety of reasons encroachment, narrow passages, missing boundary walls etc, said an HW&SC official.`The situation has changed little,` he said. Only cosmetic arrangements had been made for cleaning the rains though an extensive drive was needed to enable HMC to clear rainwater from the city, he said.

`We carry out de-silting regularly and I can show you pictures of such a drive carried out only last year,` said Hyderabad mayor Kashif Shoro while talking to Dawn.

He said that the drains did not have boundary walls throughout their length posing serious threats to human lives.

These drains were cleared manually wherever possible and the `exercise is carried out by HMC regularly`, he said.

HW&SC officials, however, believe the kind of desilting the drains needed had not been done since three years.

Despite encroachments the job could still be done through the machinery but the actual problem was availability of funds and their transparent utilization, they said.

An HW&SC official said that a major de-silting drive had been carried out in 2021 and then the exercise was con-ducted the following year in 2022. `2021 cleaning drive was done under army`s supervision when around Rs70m were released by Sindh government for the purpose,` he informed.

`Our organisation is cash starved. It is not able even to pay salaries and pension how can it arrange such huge funds,` he remarked.

`HW&SC was given two installments under the head of liabilities of water and sewerage charges against various government departments. The organisation has not been able to become a self-sustaining agency and it always looks towards government for financial assistance,` said an administration official.

End-to-end cleaning of drains has become a gigantic task amid encroachments. Heavy machinery could not enter thickly populated areas and that was why the exercise in 2021 had to be restricted to [different] bottlenecks or heavily clogged spots, he said.

`This requires plenty of funds and serious attention without which it will remain a cosmetic exercise,` he said.