Citizen who are not drowning are livid over the commissions and omissions of urban design as heavy rains buffet parts of the city intermittently and high tide complicates drainage.
By Ahmer Kureishi
ISLAMABAD: At least five people died of rain related causes on Monday as Pakistan’s most populous city Karachi continued to struggle with some of the worst wet weather conditions – and as the Met warned the conditions might continue for at least 24 more hours.
Four of the five dead were electrocuted to death by power lines gone leaky due to wet conditions while one died when a wall collapsed due to rain, Edhi sources said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke to CM Shah to commiserate over the calamitous conditions and offer the federal government’s all out support to help mitigate the situation. He later tweeted he was deeply saddened by the tragic losses due to torrential rains in Karachi.
“I am confident that Sindh government will rise to the occasion and bring life back to normal under the able leadership of CM Sindh”, he added.
Urban flooding visits Karachi every Monsoon, but this time it is different. As Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told a briefing to the media, some areas in district South saw around 23 mm of rainfall in 15 hours. But the problem was made worse by high tide at the seacoast, which lowered the rate of the discharge of floodwater to the Arabian Sea.
The CM called it a “very heavy spell”, and added the authorities were facing challenges in draining flooded areas because due to high tide at sea, the drainage of water was slow.
Shah assured citizens teams of police, Rangers, and the army had been deployed and ministers and other senior officials were on the roads to supervise rescue work.
Meanwhile, all Petroleum companies including PSO and Shell have stopped supplies in Karachi because of urban flooding.
“The quantum of rain has been 126 mm in certain areas of Karachi in 3 hours”, city administrator Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui tweeted in the afternoon. He said nullahs and drains were working but the process was slow, and pumping stations were also working at peak capacity.
“We are trying our best to address the situation”, he added. “CM & his team are in the field”.
A message from Commissioner Karachi Muhammad Iqbal Memon, advertised the telephone numbers of all emergency control rooms of all seven Deputy Commissioners, among several other emergency numbers.
Tweeted by the official handle of Commissioner’s office, the message accompanies advice from the Commissioner: “Please don’t go outside of home unnecessarily. Stay away from utility lines poles, wires and Nallas. Call on 1299 for any emergency. Stay Safe.”
Twitter was replete with images and video clips of flooded areas, neighbourhoods, and homes.
Many residents of city’s flooded areas were busy frantically baling floodwater barging into their yards and cellars. Those not drowning or actively trying to avoid flooding of their quarters were livid over the many flaws introduced into the city’s master plan by unscrupulous officials and developers for their monetary gains, at the expense of everybody.
A tweet shot by the journalist Talat Hussain represents their sentiments well, in which he said: “Karachi is a monument to Sindh government’s criminal incompetence.
“It’s also a summary of heartless exploitation by real state gangs. But cities don’t become dysfunctional in a decade. Consistent and collective crimes of state, business and politics make them what Karachi is now.”
Twitter use @aadilayub, self-professed climate activist, said, “DHA Phase VII is far more responsible for urban flooding in Karachi than any of the homes near Gujjar, Orangi, or Mehmoodabad Nala. But this giant encroachment on Karachi’s waterways will never be recognized as such, because bourgeois people live there.”
Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan (MQM-P) has set up a rain emergency centre at its Babadurabad centre, which can be reached via phone at 021-343-129-994 and 021-343-129-995. A party spokesperson said in a statement peoples’ representatives and workers were active to help the city weather the situation brought on by rains.
Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chairman Mustapha Kamal squarely blamed the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which he noted has ruled the city for the last 14 years, for the situation. Maintaining corruption and service could not go hand in hand, he said the only remedy for Karachi was to get rid of such political parties, and claims his party alone could set the city right.
Meanwhile, the Regional Meteorological Center of the Pakistan Meteorological Department issued a warning the violent weather conditions are likely to continue until the evening of July 12.
“Due to persistent low pressure over the North Arabian Sea, intermittent rain-thunderstorms of moderate [to] heavy intensity, very heavy at times, likely to continue in Karachi, Thatta, Badin, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, [Tando Muhammad Khan], Tando Allayar [and] Tharparker [districts until] 12 July evening.
“Scattered rain-thunderstorms also expected in Sukkur, Larkana, Dadu, Jacobabad, Khairpur, Nawabshah, Noushero Feroz & Shikarpur distts during the period.
“Continuous rainy spell may create waterlogging and urban flooding in low-lying areas of Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, and Badin districts”.
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