24 perish as heavy rain paralyses Karachi

KARACHI: As many as 24 people were killed, including 10 due to electrocution and the remaining in other rain-related accidents, in Karachi during an unprecedented spell of heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday that played

havoc with the lives of people of the city.

Even on Tuesday, most parts of the metropolis continued to confront urban flooding and large areas of the city remain without power since the rain started on Saturday. The failure of Karachi’s local bodies institutions besides KMC, to remove and dispose of the accumulated water and floating waste of the sacrificial animals a day after the rainfall stopped, turned many areas into giant cesspools till the filing of this report.

It was the second but so far the heaviest spell of monsoon rains in Karachi in the current season that started on Saturday but gained momentum on the night between Saturday and Sunday when continuous rain created urban flooding as rainwater flooded homes in low-lying areas of the city. The accumulation of waist-deep water in several localities including Yousuf Goth, several areas of Defence Housing Authority and other low-lying areas of Karachi prevented thousands of people from getting out of their homes to offer Eid-ul-Azha prayers, while also confronting difficulty in performing animal sacrifice. The situation worsened to such an extent that scared people started calling Azaans, (an emergency call for prayers) as vast areas of the city plunged into darkness multiplying their miseries.

“Karachi on an average received 158 millimeters of rain during this spell, from August 10 and 11, 2019. But the heaviest spell lasted 8-10 hours, playing havoc with the lives of people,” said Sardar Sarfraz, Chief Meteorological Officer (CMO) Sindh, while talking to The News on Tuesday. He said “some areas received over 150mm of rain in one night as urban flooding,” turned most parts of the country’s largest city into a large network of canals.

Army troops were summoned to different areas of the city to help the civil administration after the civic infrastructure collapsed despite presence of federal and provincial ministers in the city and in several areas. The army personnel rescued several people, including those trapped in the Malir and Lyari rivers. The troops also helped save key installations and shifted women and children to safer places from areas flooded due to heavy downpour.

According to Karachi Police, as many as 24 people were killed in Karachi in rain related incidents, including 10 due to electrocution and 14 in incidents of drowning and roof collapse. Besides 33 people, including women and children, were also injured in different incidents who are undergoing treatment at various hospitals. The Executive Director Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) Karachi, Dr. Seemin Jamali, said six people were brought dead to the health facility due to electrocution from Saturday to Monday, followed by three in Civil Hospital and one to the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital. The tragic electrocution of three young friends on an inundated road in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Karachi saddened people across Pakistan whose misery, while lying in a pool of water, was recorded on cell phones and widely circulated, becoming a strong statement of the poor performance of the city’s power utility, the K-Electric.

Facing widespread condemnation and criticism from the people of the city, Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar approached Karachi’s District South Police and negotiated with the police for six hours to get an FIR lodged against K-Electric on murder charges. The FIR was eventually filed on the complaint of father of one of the victims of electrocution as severe pressure mounted on the local, provincial and federal governments to initiate action against the power utility for its callousness resulting in large number of unnecessary deaths in rains.

A large number of city areas confronted days-long acute water shortages complicated due to absence of electricity at pumping stations. The hardship to acquire drinking water became more challenging due to holidays and rain-related clogging of streets and roads across the city.