very year, when the monsoon arrives in Karachi, streets turn into rivers, power goes out and daily life comes to a standstill. Roads get inundated and people die. Behind all this lies a deep, structural problem—one that keeps on getting worse: years of poor planning, broken promises and administrative failure.

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, 180mm of rainfall was recorded on Tuesday. Its intensity could be gauged from the fact that the city administration was forced to shut down several underpasses and major thoroughfares for vehicular traffic. Major traffic arteries, including Shahrah-i-Faisal, MA Jinnah Road, and II Chundrigar Road, got flooded.

Mayor MurtazaWahab admitted that Karachi’s drains could handle only 40mm of rain; an alarming revelation that highlights how little has changed since the 1992 deluge that claimed more than 50 lives.

In the wake of that disaster, officials pledged to construct major drainage systems along Shahrah-i-Faisal and II Chundrigar Road. Three decades later, those promises remain unfulfilled. This is not a crisis born of a single storm. It is the result of decades pockmarked with neglect, stalled projects and ignored warnings.

Prolonged traffic jams paralysed nearly all major roads in Karachi following continuous rainfall. Abandoned vehicles lined the waterlogged roads. Hidden dangers lurked beneath the surface; open manholes, overflowing sewers and the risk of electrocution from exposed cables.

Those most affected included daily wage workers, office workers, schoolchildren and women, many of whom had to wade through waist-high water to get home in the wee hours of Wednesday. Slightly better off were the thousands trapped in one of Karachi’s worst traffic jams, where a usual 30-minute commute turned into a 10-hour ordeal amid gridlock and rising water.

A high-rise building in Soldier Bazaar was inundated up to its first floor during the downpour. Some 80 stranded residents had to be rescued from the site.

20 people lost their lives in two days. They died in wall and roof collapses, from electric shocks or were swept away by strong currents.

In Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s Block-12, the walls of a house collapsed, burying an entire family under the debris. Three members of the family died instantly, crushed beneath the heavy rubble. A fourth, pulled out with barely a pulse, succumbed to her injuries later in hospital. Only one child survived the devastation.

In North Karachi and Shah Faisal Colony, a man got electrocuted. Two siblings died of electric shock while trying to save each other.

From Tuesday to Wednesday, Karachiiteshad to endure sweltering heat and sleepless nights because of prolonged power outages in most neighbourhoods.

“We had no electricity for nearly two days,” said Surayya Khan in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, her voice heavy with exhaustion. “The inverter died within hours, plunging us into suffocating darkness. The children tossed and turned, drenched in sweat, unable to sleep.”

“Without an integrated plan, every heavy shower will turninto a flood disaster.”

Hospitals also reported difficulties in running equipment, relying heavily on backup generators. “Power breakdowns lasting this long are catastrophic for some patients,” said a staff nurse at Civil Hospital. “Every minute without reliable power puts lives at risk.”

The tripping of more than 2,100 power feeders exposed the staggering extent of the breakdown. Although officials claimed the number had dropped to around 2,000 by nightfall, the figures offered little solace to residents enduring a second night without electricity.

Rain submerged several parts of the city,sparing neither low-lying slums nor upscale gated housing societies like Defence Housing Authority. In DHA, many basements got flooded as houses got submerged and the streets turned into lakes.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah linked Karachi’s intense rainfall to global climate change, noting that the city had received 160-170mm in just three to four hours, totalling up to 200mm in 12 hours. In the face of mounting criticism, CM Shah defended the administration’s response, stating that despite the scale of the downpour, water was cleared from most parts of the city by late Tuesday night.

MQM-P leader Dr Farooq Sattarcriticised the provincial government for treating Karachi “like a colony” and blamed 17 years of PPP’s “misgovernance” for the post-rain chaos. He demanded that Karachi be declared a calamity-hit area, called for a relief fund and said that elected representatives must be included in emergency planning initiatives.

This is not new. Every monsoon, Karachi turns into a waterlogged disaster zone. “Karachi has no functioning, city-wide bulk drainage system,” said Professor DrNoman Ahmed, pro vice chancellor of NED University of Engineering and Technology. “Storm drains have been encroached upon, clogged, or diverted. In the absence of an integrated plan, every heavy shower will keep turning into a flood disaster.”

“Look at the Liaquatabad underpass, which was designed based on minimum, not maximum, rainfall due to budget constraints. As a result, it floods frequently during heavy rain. Even short bursts of rain—like the 50-60mm downpour in 2018-2019—can paralyse low-lying areas, causing major disruption.”

The absence of connectivity compounds the problem. Drains have been built here and there, but most flow to dead-ends. “A drain that does not connect to the main trunks is just a pool,” he noted. “Water collects, but it has nowhere to go. That’s why we see waist-deep flooding after rain.”

Former chief meteorologist DrSardarSarfraz said Tuesday’s downpour was“an unprecedented event.”He cited past rainfall records to highlight the scale of Karachi’s downpour, noting 230mm on August 27, 2020, and 207mm in 1977.

Sarfraz stressed the need for climate-resilient infrastructure, pointing to flaws in urban planning. “Look at theLiaquatabad underpass. Its design was not on maximumrainfall due to budget constraints. As a result, it floods frequently during heavy rain. Even short bursts of rain—like the 50-60mm downpour in 2018–2019—can paralyse low-lying areas, causing major disruption.”

Explaining the link between climate change and extreme weather, DrSarfraz said every 1°C rise in temperature increases the atmosphere’s moisture capacity by around 7pc. With global temperatures up by 1.5°C since the pre-industrial era, this has led to a 7-9pc rise in global rainfall. These changes, he warned, are fuelling more frequent and severe downpours, underscoring the urgent need for improved climate preparedness and infrastructure resilience.

The writer is a senior The News staffer based in Karachi