Daily Times

Once again it took barely half a day’s rain to completely paralyse almost all of Lahore city. And it’s not as if Friday’s shower was a heavy downpour. It did go on more or less all day, but the city administration had broken down while it was still a drizzle that lasted a couple of hours. Since then, just as expected, roads in most parts of the city resemble small rivers, traffic has been blocked all over with many cars left in the middle of roads, as and when the water rendered them useless, and there has bee no electricity in some parts for almost two days now.

It beggars belief that this should happen every time it rains in this provincial capital. The provincial machinery has a dedicated disaster management authority, after all, which is duly funded to meet just such situations. Yet, even though it is known throughout the year that rains will cause problems in the rainy season, year after year nobody is prepared for it. This time the army hasn’t been called in so far, but more often than not it has to be, and their jawans hardly take a few hours to clear everything and restore at least a semblance of normalcy. That proves that the job can be done; just not by those who are hired for it. That is why we see the same circus play out every year.

There is a very large economic cost to such inefficiency. When the city is choked when it shouldn’t be and people are unable to reach their workplaces, businesses suffer. And this country is not in a position to allow a whole city to shut down and wait for the rain to pass simply because the provincial government is not capable of doing part of its basic job. More rains are predicted for the next few days so it seems things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better. So, while the whole city, and most probably other areas, are suffering the same fate as every year, perhaps someone should at least identify which heads to roll for this year’s negligence. That will, at the very least, send a strong message that might just make things a little better for next year.

It seems Lahore has started following Karachi’s example at least as far as devastation from rains is concerned. Just as in the port city, the Punjab capital too now drowns at the first sign of rain. It would have been far better, needless to say, if we had instead followed some other metropolitan city of note. *