KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has directed the local government and irrigation departments to be alert to face forthcoming flood like situation in the province. He said the cleanliness work of drains and strengthening of embankments of River Indus must be continued on war footings. He said this while presiding over an emergent meeting at CM House on Monday on cleanliness of drains and strengthening of embankments of River Indus. The meeting was attended by Senior Minister for Education, Nisar Khuhro, Health Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar, Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro, Sindh Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, Principal Secretary to CM, Alamuddin Bullo, Sindh Member Board of Revenue, Rizwan Memon, Irrigation Secretary Zaheer Hyder Shah and various other senior officers. Chief Mythologist Rasheed while briefing the meeting said that about 50 to 55 mm rain was expected in Tharparkar, Umerkot, Badin, Thatta and Karachi on July 12 and 13 but there was no chance of heavy storm. Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro said that there were 30 major drains in the city, out of which six most important drains were being cleared through heavy machinery. He said that the DMCs of the city have around 520 drains and they were also cleaning them. He said that most of the drains were massively encroached. While giving examples of Mahmoodabad drain, he said that its 1.5 kilometre was badly encroached where machinery could not be landed or moved. The minister said, “We have started manual work to clean these portions and on Gujjar Nala, some 16 choked points were identified and most of them have been cleared to carry storm water drain.” Shoro said that the work orders for de-silting of four major drains have been issued. The de-silting of all the drains at a time was quite difficult. The Gujjar Nala is 14 kilometres long. In the first phase, KMC was working to clear most dumped and choked areas and after that the excavation would be continued till next six month. “Though, it is a temporary work but even then it would cater to the need of next one year,” he said. The chief minister said that the actual width of drains are around 200 feet wide but they have reduced to eight to 10 feet now adding that at some points hardly four feet width have been left by encroachers. On this, Jam Khan Shoro said that 30,000 families were settled along and on the Gujjar Nala. “We will have to bring a major scheme to remove encroachment and line these nalas with cement and concrete so that they cannot be encroached in future,” he suggested. The chief minister directed the local government minister and his entire team of KMC and Karachi Water Board and the commissioner Karachi to ensure proper pumping out of rain water in time. “You must hire generators and fix them in low lying areas and start pumping as it starts raining,” he said. The chief minister also directed the Sindh Chief Secretary Siddique Memon and Commissioner Karachi, Aijaz Ali Khan, to coordinate with K-Electric to keep their system, at least at the pumping stations right from Dhabeji to the city, so that water supply to city could be continued during the heavy rains. It may be noted that the Sindh chief minister has already provided Rs 160 million to KMC for de-silting of storm water drains.