Rains continued wreaking havoc in the country during the monsoon season. Sindh being the worst-hit province in the country, lives were paralyzed in Karachi and in various districts of Sindh as well as parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
At least 80 people were killed in Sindh including 47 in Karachi, 16 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and eight across Punjab in rain-related incidents, as moderate-to-heavy showers continued lashing parts of the country.
Record-breaking rains and economic losses
This year, Karachi experienced torrential rain as per the Pakistan Meteorological Department’s (PMD) near accurate prediction.
After record-breaking rain which totaled 223.5mm in a 12-hour period wrecked Karachi making life impossible for citizens as mobile phone services, internet services, landlines, the communications infrastructure and highways all collapsed.
The suffering of scores of Karachiites saw no end on Monday as parts of the city remained waterlogged and without power, an agonizing five days after record-breaking rainfall caused widespread devastation in the metropolis. The intense rains have caused heavy losses to life and property all over Sindh.
Economic losses
As the Sindh government begins a survey to determine the economic losses caused by recent the rains, traders in Karachi estimate that rains have cost them about Rs 12 billion ($71 million) during the week.
According to Atiq Mir, president of the All Karachi Tajir Ittehad, The torrential rain spells and ensuing closures of businesses have caused losses amounting to Rs 10-12 billion so far.
He said that property losses due to flooding were yet to be counted since the water had not receded in many areas.
Several traders claim that business centers located in the old city quarters, a cluster of wholesale markets that supply different commodities across the province, had suffered most.
Atiq Mir further said the old city area has been hugely affected since water has ruined goods worth millions of rupees.
Urdu Bazaar, which supplies books and other stationery products to every corner of the city, is almost completely submerged, he added.
Karachi’s business hub, the II Chundrigar Road, remained inundated with three-to-four feet water and people could not enter their offices at Pakistan Stock Exchange, State Bank of Pakistan, HBL building where Edhi rescue boats continued operations.
Likewise, among the other worst-hit areas of the metropolis were the upscale Defence Housing Authority, Clifton and PECHS, which were submerged by rainwater. Similarly, from different parts of District Central and District West, the rainwater couldn’t be drained out.
Rains wreak havoc in Karachi
In just two days of record-breaking torrential rainfall, virtually the entire city was underwater with electricity unavailable, ATMs out of cash, fuel pumps dry, and cellular connections are broken.
Besides, houses in low-lying areas, inhabited mostly by the poor and lower-middle-class population, have been inundated, with roofs and walls collapsing in many cases, and people losing within days what they had earned after years of hard work and sacrifice.
However, some of its residents still managed to use social media networks to document the situation in their neighborhoods and express frustration.
On Monday, frustrated by the lack of action by departments concerned, residents of DHA and Clifton gathered outside the Clifton Cantonment Board (CBC) office to protest against the post-rain situation in the two localities.
A huge number of people, carrying placards and chanting slogans, demanded that the drainage system in the areas be improved and roads are repaired and made from scratch. They also called upon the CBC CEO to address their issues.
The protestors also demanded an audit of funds collected in the name of flood relief and called for the board to ensure clean-up work. Footage from the protest also showed people attempting to storm the CBC office before being stopped by police.
Difficulties with DHA drains
Sindh government spokesman Murtaza Wahab said that the provincial government had placed its machines at Khayaban-e-Muhafiz and Khayaban-e-Shujaat to drain out the rainwater from Bukhari Commercial.
The department is facing difficulties with the drains at DHA but they are trying their best,” he said. In a separate statement, he added that the Sindh government had deployed more machines to help drain the rainwater in DHA.
Doctors fear the outbreak of disease
Health experts have urged the Sindh government to clean garbage and accumulated rainwater from the city on a priority basis, pointing out that these could lead to an outbreak of malaria, dengue, typhoid and other infectious and water-borne diseases.
Jinnah Sindh Medical University vice-chancellor Dr Tariq Rafi said that stagnant rainwater standing in different parts of the metropolis could result in the spread of numerous diseases.
Meanwhile, Infection Control Society Pakistan president Prof Rafiq Khanani said that bacteria would spread rapidly in the garbage-strewn across the city after the rain, which may become airborne. He said the city is already dealing with coronavirus, but medical waste overflowing from the sewers will also cause the virus to spread.
Another monsoon spell
Meanwhile, the country’s meteorological department warned on Monday that another monsoon rain-bearing system was expected to enter the province today.
Heavy rainfall may further aggravate existing urban flooding, waterlogging in Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Mirpurkhas and Badin from Monday evening. Heavy downpour may generate flash flooding in Sibbi, Kalat, Khuzdar, Lasbella and Dera Ghazi Khan during the period.
Need a better infrastructure for Karachi
Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan and the seventh-largest city in the world. It is the financial hub of the country, contributing more than 70 percent in the country’s revenues and approximately 95 percent in the province’s revenues, yet it has been deprived of the basic infrastructural facilities.
The rainfalls have further proved that the city’s infrastructure is completely destroyed. All know that these rainfalls were unprecedented and that they have broken several records, but had we been prepared with the proper infrastructure in place, the damage wouldn’t have been as bad.
Citizens, therefore, request all the authorities to take up this matter with utmost urgency and resolve the issues of Karachi after setting aside their political differences. Kindly think like Pakistanis and not as members of a specific party.
Karachiites have come forward and helped the fellow countrymen whenever natural calamities have befallen on our mother nation, it is now time that Karachi needs the entire nation to plead to its leaders to revive the city to its glory.
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