hether it’s drizzling or a heavy downpour, news updates flashing across television screens often read: Lahore’s low-lying areas left inundated. On July 22, areas that had previously remained largely safe from rain-related issues made headlines as the city witnessed 343 mm of rain, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority.

That spell is past. The city has entered a second spell.

The Met Department has issued a fresh weather advisory, warning that another active monsoon spell is expected till August 5 across much of the country. The advisory said that rain, wind and thundershowers along with scattered heavy-to-very-heavy rainfall, may trigger urban flooding, flash floods and landslides in vulnerable areas.

So why and when does Lahore flood?

Environmental activist Rafay Alam points out that the Met Department had already notified that rain would continue for two days. He says people had been warned in advance that urban flooding would take place—not just in Lahore, but in several cities across the Punjab, including Gujranwala and Sialkot.

He references last year’s floods for comparison. “Those floods were caused by heavy rains in the northern areas of the country that caused rivers to swell. On top of that, India released water from the Pong Dam and Bhakra Dam.” He adds that a gate at the Madhopur headworks also broke, causing water levels in the River Ravi to rise sharply.

Today, the situation is different. “The flooding now has not been caused by river floods or dam releases,” he says. “It is due to heavy rainfall occurring within Pakistan.”

“People should read the Met Department’s advisory. The heaviest rains in the coming days are expected in the northern areas, not over Lahore.” The real issue, he says, is the sheer intensity of rainfall. “Some areas received around 150 mm of rain within a few hours,” he says.

Two or three decades ago, when drainage systems and infrastructure in some of these areas was designed, he says, climate change was not part of the planning. “Nobody at that time imagined such intense rainfall. As a result, old infrastructure simply cannot handle the kind of rain Pakistan is now experiencing.”

Dr Farid A Malik, a resident of DHA Phase 5, says that between the 1950s and 1970s, he hadn’t witnessed standing rainwater in the city. “At the time, the city was much smaller. The city simply did not see water rise after rainfall the way it does now.”

“There were only two places where rainwater would collect. One was near Shahdara, and the other was near the Do Moriya Pul, close to the Railway Station.”

He recalls that in the 1970s, when ZA Bhutto’s government came into power, and the PPP enjoyed support from those areas in Lahore, the government promised to install pumps in Shahdara and set up a system to drain water. “They actually did it,” says Dr Malik. “Heavy-duty pumps were installed in Shahdara and they successfully drained the water.”

Dr Malik says that Lahore can no longer handle the rainwater, “because the system does not have the capacity to handle that much water.” He says that underground sewers are not de-silted regularly, “even large pipes become clogged over time.” Even if the system is maintained well, it cannot handle rainwater on top of regular sewage.

“Lahore used to have separate storm drains. Those carried away rainwater separately.”

Now, most storm drains have been blocked either through neglect or construction. “An entire market has been built on top of a storm drain along Hall Road,” he says, adding that many similar encroachments exist along the Ravi. “Last year, water that should have gone into the river ended up entering housing societies.”

Urban sprawl has added to the problem.

“New settlements were given sewerage systems but no proper storm drain network.” DHA, he says, expanded in phases over the years without a master plan covering how sewage and rainwater would be managed.

Speaking of his neighbourhood, Dr Malik says there is a pumping station near the Sui Gas Society in the vicinity of DHA that pumps sewage water from Phases 4 and 5 into the Rohi Nullah. During heavy rain, this station is switched off, he says, out of fear that its motors could sustain damage on account of overload. This causes water to accumulate. “Once rain stops, the station is switched back on.”

“Until there is a holistic master plan for the entire city, this problem will continue,” he says.

Ghufran Ahmed, the Water and Sanitation Agency managing director, says growing public and media scrutiny keeps his staff on their toes.

Ahmed says the WASA has completed 52 schemes costing Rs 25.06 billion aimed at controlling flooding and improving drainage across the city. Of these, 10 schemes costing Rs 7.4 billion were for rainwater storage. Another 26 schemes, worth Rs 9.16 billion, are replacing sewer lines that have outlived their usefulness. Six more schemes, budgeted at Rs 1.70 billion, will replace 55 outdated machines. The Haji Camp Drain project alone costs Rs 4.10 billion.

Ahmed says that overlapping jurisdictions among different agencies handling water supply, sewerage and drainage often create confusion and cause delays. He says the WASA has recommended that all these functions be placed under a single agency to improve coordination.

Officials say throwing solid waste into drains and sewers only worsens flooding, adding that stricter enforcement is needed to stop the practice. Ahmed says Lahore’s 195 parks and open spaces currently sit on high ground, making them unable to hold rainwater. He proposes lowering the park grounds so that they serve as temporary water holding spaces.

The WASA has already begun lowering ground levels in 140 parks; 66 of those have been assigned ‘high priority.’ Work has been completed in 13; it is in progress in seven and pending in 120.

The plan, Ahmed says, is to maintain parks grounds two feet below road level. The results, he says, are visible. At the Gol Bagh Park in Shadbagh, for instance, lowering the ground by one foot has cut ponding time from two hours to one.

The writer is the editor of an English daily. He can be reached at [email protected].