SALALAH: An emergency committee of the Dhofar Municipality is working round the clock to monitor the status of waterlogging and other issues related to civic work post tropical depression, all over the governorate.
The committee is working under Dr Ahmed bin Mohsen al Ghassani, Chairman of Dhofar Municipality. Working teams have been formed to assess overall situation following heavy rain due to tropical depression and damages thereafter.
Waterlogging in residential areas and main roads has emerged as a major issue, which has largely been addressed in two days.
Mohammed bin Ahmed Kashoub, Director of the Drainage Department at Dhofar Municipality, said, “The governorate witnessed unprecedented heavy rains for five days. Despite solid drainage network, some of the main roads got flooded and even rainwater retention tanks were full.”
Commenting on mechanism to handle such situation Ahmed Kashoub said, “Due to heavy rain the capacity of drainage network was full despite the fact we had divided the work team in three sectors ‑‑ Salalah City (central), Arzat (east) and Raysut (west) ‑‑ to receive the reports and deal with it according to priority. Many sites have been monitored and documented, which can be addressed in future.”
The Director of Sewerage pointed out that 15 tankers were used on daily basis along with 25 pumps of different sizes. Large quantity of water was withdrawn from various roads and sub-roads, streets and residential areas, including some government institutions.”
Ahmed Kashoub emphasised that many streets are equipped with water drainage system such as Rabat Street, July 23 Street and Umm al Ghawar Street.
Similarly, Taymour Street from its intersection and Rabat Street to Al Dahriz Roundabout has drainage system. “But management of so much of water suddenly put us in a fix. Our teams worked day and night and were successful in removing water from many locations Salalah city.”
“Waterlogging has many related issues like movement of vehicles, formation of water patches, which in turn become germination points of insects and mosquitoes, and thus affect people’s health. Our teams are active to address all the issues and I would like to extend thanks and appreciation to the rainwater drainage team in Dhofar Municipality as well as support that we got from Muscat Municipality, Regional Municipalities and Water Resources, and Diwan of Royal Court,” Ahmed Kashoub said.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
