Rain emergency imposed but crisis still imminent

Karachi
With rainfall expected in the metropolis soon, the Karachi Municipal Corporation has directed all staff and rescue services to remain on standby and cancelled leaves of all important employees.
In a meeting at his office on Tuesday, KMC Administrator Saqib Ahmed Soomro urged representatives of rescue, health and municipal services, as well as all district municipal commissioners, to ensure their departments were ready for any possible emergency.
While he acknowledged that the met department was yet to issue any sort of red alert, Soomro specifically called for upgrades and maintenance of all essential machinery and vehicles.
In this regard, Sindh Local Government Minister Sharjeel Memon also issued orders to the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board to clean out the city’s major nullahs – Gujjar nullah, Orangi Town nullah, Nehar-e-Khayyam nullah and Manzoor Colony nullah – before the rains commence.
Teeming with waste, these drains have long been a cause for concern and, with nothing being done to clean them out, would most likely lead to major overspill in the monsoon season.

A hopeless situation?
When The News spoke to KMC Municipal Commissioner Sami Siddiqi about the orders to clean up drains around the city, he presented quite a candid but bleak view of the situation.
He asserted that around 90 percent of the nullahs in Karachi had been encroached upon by people who had nowhere else to live. “These are people who fall way under the poverty line and are living near these drains for a want of alternatives. It will not be possible for us to clear them out of the areas,” said Siddiqi, “All we can do is wait for the water to dry out in five to six days!”