Daily Times

Torrential rains in the metropolis have receded after its spells accomplished, however, leaves innumerable serious issues behind it every year. Despite early warning issued by Met office, the civic authorities always fails to take timely actions and required arrangements to deal with it. After the first spell of rain in July 6 and onward recent till date, the city’s entire infrastructure was badly disturbed.

As the rain poured down on Karachi last year, much was written and pointed out the shortcomings and misarrangements of sindh govt during the monsoon. It once again brought up the question – why is Karachi never prepared for torrential rains?

Pakistan’s commercial capital suffers huge economic losses and heaped misery on the millions of people due to heavy rains at least every year. In recent rains, cars worth of millions were destroyed as a wall of parking area collapsed at I.I. Chundrigar Road, a busy commercial area of Karachi during recent heavy rain in Karachi. Suburban road transport and normal public life is disrupted for a few weeks each time. Situation across the city had become worsened due to at least 2 -3 foot deep rain water on the roads and Water started stagnating even at the prime areas of the city. The entire District Central drowned after the overflowing of the Gujjar Nullah, the city’s biggest storm water drain starting from New Karachi and ending at the Chona Depot in Haji Mureed Goth, where it falls into the Lyari River. As usual, many low-lying areas and roads had been inundated with rainwater and sewage after gutters overflowed following the rain, with residents facing extreme difficulties in reaching their destinations.

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) is responsible for 48 major storm water drains, while 500 minor drains fall under the purview of the six DMCs. Claims for cleaning the city’s nullahs by KMC and DMCs remains just claims,While the elected councils of the KMC and DMCs always complains of a lack of funds to clean these drains.

The KMC over the years has lost the capacity to maintain the rain-related and other infrastructure that is required to meet such challenges. After induction of a third-party or contractor system, the KMC has no more such capacity. By late 1970s, every municipal body had its own workshop and staff for such situation but it has become obsolete now.” Over the years, the priorities of the authorities has shifted from maintenance of infrastructure to execution of new projects, which had cut short the utility of the already existing system for such a situation.

In October 2018, the long-awaited Gujjar Nullah rehabilitation project kicked off again at a cost of Rs12.5 billion. The project included the shifting of 30,000 residents and the construction of 24-feet-wide service roads on both sides of the drain.

Electrocution has been the top cause of death during torrential rains every year. An unprofessional performance and incompetence of K-Electric also turns risk into disaster the moment it rains. It never bother to check safety of electricity structures on a regular basis. Hence, it failed to replace damaged and worn-out insulators and the rain eliminates the remaining insulation. Nepra may also be made responsible for not taking timely action against K-Electric of its negligence which causes the loss of many lives with electrocution every year. In response to this situation KE claims that the electricity supply have to suspend to areas in a “state of urban flooding” in the interest of public safety.

Furthermore, the National Disaster Management Authority and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority somehow are responsible for not giving clear warning to K-Electric and other power distribution companies about electrocution. Risks and hazards stemmed from poor electricity infrastructures, for being marginalised areas of public policy. There also appears a serious policy bias in favour of natural hazards, which is fine as the country very often suffers from natural hazards, but the disasters because of poor governance and corruption can’t be thrown to the margin.

Encroachments are also another major hurdle for periodic maintenance. On the other side, there has been no visible response from agencies concerned to ensure drainage of standing rainwater and compliance of building control laws so the power utility can get a safe and secure working environment.

Earlier, WasIm Akhtar had participated just saying that due to the rainwater accumulated on the roads, sacrificing animals in the streets will not be safe on Eidul Azha, he requested the citizens to use the KMC slaughterhouse to sacrifice animals. Another stake holder of Karachi from PTI said that the authorities failed to take any steps to prevent the city from damage caused by rain, despite prior warning. He apparently have demanded K-Electric to pay adequate amount as compensation to families of victims who died from electric shocks.

While on the contrary, such slogans of political leaders on drowning Karachi are nothing but political rhetoric & point scoring. According to the six-year data, 73 persons had lost their lives in rain-related incidents in the city.

According to civic observers due to climate change Karachi might face more devastation in future If the challenges about poor infrastructure and incompetence of the institutions are not addressed right now, It feared the situation will further worsen in the future.