Avoidable tragedies

Come rain or any other natural calamity, and we are cruelly reminded of just how ill-prepared local administrations are across the country. A recent tragedy case only underscores this point. On Sunday, July 17, a family of four met with a tragic incident when their motorcycle fell into an open patch of a drain that is under construction in Shadman Town, Karachi. The mother drowned and died while her two-month-old son went missing in the drain. The father on the bike somehow managed to save his two-year old daughter and jumped out of the drain. This completely avoidable tragedy is heart-wrenching. Had the city authorities taken precautionary measures and put up a signboard where the open patch was, the woman and her in fact would still be alive. Similar accidents have claimed lives in the past too but, human life being such a low priority for our governments, no one is really punished for criminal negligence. This is not only in Karachi, in other parts of Pakistan too there is absolutely no fencing around ‘under-construction areas on streets’, something that should be required by law whenever such construction is underway.

Unfenced open drains are a normal sight in Pakistan and neither municipal authorities nor the construction firms take them seriously as a potential threat to human life and property. Even along main roads there are open manholes and drains that are hardly visible in darkness, and more so during rainfall. Then there is the question of streetlights that do not function or stop functioning as soon a few drops of rain fall. This is the collective failure of the system and all its stakeholders. According to reports, this particular patch was dug up months ago but was not closed or covered by the authorities or the firm responsible. Earlier, another bike rider had fallen into the open drain but no precautionary measures were put in place to prevent such tragedies. In our country decades go by, but there is no visible improvement in our municipal standards.

Not unrelated to this negligence is the collapse of buildings. Just a day after the Shadman tragedy, an empty multi-story building collapsed in Moosa Colony. Luckily, no casualty was reported but it could have been worse had the building not been vacated a day earlier. The building was not old but had developed cracks during rains, highlighting the abysmal level of the city’s building control authority’s checks on new construction standards. On the same day, in another incident, two children drowned in a pond on the outskirts of Karachi in Soomar Goth. While municipal authorities are negligent in their duties, the electric system itself leaves much to desire. Another man was electrocuted in Lyari on July 18 and a labourer lost his life when a roof collapsed in Soldier Bazaar on the same day. Then in Panjgur in Balochistan on July 18, at least six people including two children were swept away by flash floods that the heavy rainfall caused and the district fell into darkness after two power pylons fell. Such incidents are numerous and take place with a dangerous regularity. The country needs better infrastructure and improved municipal and electricity services. More than that, it needs a political elite that sees the regular citizen as human.