By Ayman Adly/Staff Reporter

Regular maintenance of the available infrastructure for rain drainage should be conducted to ensure the readiness of the network when heavy rains come, the civic council stressed on Tuesday.

The Central Municipal Council (CMC) agreed with the view of the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) that temporary solutions for the issue of rainwater accumulation on the country's roads should be adopted rather than constructing a permanent and costly drainage network.

Hamad Lahdan al-Muhannadi, CMC vice-chairman, said there are more pressing infrastructure priorities scheduled until 2022, and the issue of a comprehensive rainwater drainage system is not that urgent.

CMC member Jassim al-Malki called for an effective and regular maintenance process to make sure that the system would work properly in case of rain. He pointed out that the rainy season in the country is not long or regular and it is also not heavy or recurrent to the degree that necessitates the construction of an expensive comprehensive network for drainage.

CMC member Mohamed bin Zafir al-Hajiri observed that the accumulation of rainwater, resulting in stagnant water ponds, especially on the highways of Al Shamal, is mostly due to bad and improper designs of roads. He said that such roads should be designed to let the water drain to the desert.

Meanwhile, the council approved the recommendation of its services and public utilities committee in this regard. It mainly stressed that the municipalities concerned should provide an adequate number of suction trucks well equipped to meet the demand immediately in case of heavy rains.

Such vehicles could be stationed at the highways or the points of roads known for water-logging during rain. Also, municipalities should maintain close co-ordination with Ashghal to provide instant and temporary solutions for each of these situations.

At its regular biweekly session on Tuesday, CMC discussed a suggestion to improve the safety and security of the various bus stops across the country. CMC members asked that Mowasalat should at least provide such stops with adequate shades during the summer season in particular to ease the difficulty of waiting passengers. Further, bus stops need to be redistributed according to the changing population density in the country.

The council handled a suggestion to establish a major public garden or park at Al Khor Municipality, as most of the public gardens at Al Khor and Al Thakhira are of small size and not adequate for families.

Both suggestions were referred to the CMC services and public utilities committee for further study and consultation with entities concerned.