First monsoon showers bring joy and misery for ill-prepared Karachi

Karachi

The inefficiency of the city’s civic management system and the inaccuracy of the Met department’s forecasts did not come as a surprise as over half the metropolis plunged into darkness while roads were flooded after the city received its first monsoon rain on Tuesday.

Thousands were stuck in traffic jams as almost all major thoroughfares were inundated, while several injured people were reported to have been received by both the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the Civil Hospital Karachi.

Predicting hot, dry weather for Karachi on Tuesday, the met department after the rain requested citizens to brace for moderate showers in the coming two days.

“We had forecasted rain for Wednesday and Thursday but the clouds came a few hours earlier than we predicted,” observed Met department’s regional director Dr Abdur Rashid while speaking to The News.

The director informed that monsoon season had formally begun in Sindh as heavy rains were reported from other parts of the province. Dr Rashid added that this would continue till the end of the monsoon season in September.

According to the met department, around 32.4 mm rain was recorded in Nazimabad, 31 mm in areas around the airport, 24 mm at University road and 12 mm each at Landhi and Faisal Base on Sharea Faisal.

Power outages

“Only 220 of the total 1,433 electricity feeders tripped,” said spokesperson for K-Electric (KE) Sadia Dada, adding, that the power utility was monitoring the repair work in areas where the feeders tripped.

 Travih prayers were offered in darkness at the mosques as alternate power arrangements are not made at worship places in the city.

The areas affected owing to power shortages included Landhi, Korangi, Bilal Colony, various sectors of North Karachi, Surjani Town, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, various blocks of FB Area, Malir, Model Colony and Shah Faisal Colony among.

Areas where outages occurred due to faults in transmission lines were stated to be Garden, Soldier Bazaar, Ranchore Lines, Burns Road, Kharadar, different parts of Lyari, II Chundrigar road and Kemari.

“The electricity feeders trip during rains due to a safety mechanism installed within them to avoid any untoward incident,” Sadia added.

She advised people to take precautionary measures during the monsoon season, and not touch electrical appliances with wet hands to avoid electrocution.

The citizens were also expected to experience a water shortage as power to both the Dhabeji and Pipri pumping stations was also suspended.

“Even a minute’s power outage at pumping stations results in loss of thousands of gallons of water,” an official of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board stated.

 

Gridlocks

Severe traffic jams were witnessed in areas including Gulshan-e-Iqbal, FB Area, Malir, University road, Sachal Goth, Sohrab Goth, Surjani Town, North Karachi and Nazimabad.

With no pre-emptive measures taken to clean out storm water drains despite it being a monsoon season, several vehicles broke down adding to the woes of the commuters already stuck in traffic jams caused due to severe inundation of roads.