KARACHI: City roads, streets and narrow lanes were flooded and overflowing gutters just added to the mess as rain continued to pour late into Thursday night with increasing complaints of power breakdowns and water entering homes in low-lying areas.

Earlier in the evening a Met official said that Gulshan-i-Hadeed got the heaviest amount of rainfall in the metropolis and forecast more rain for Friday.

Since Wednesday evening, the provincial capital has received more than 54 millimetres of rainfall, which was approximately over two inches, said the weatherman in response to Dawn’s queries on Thursday evening.

Among other towns of the province, Badin received 34mm rainfall, Mirpurkhas received 6mm and Thatta got 8mm of rainfall. Traces of rain were also recorded in Mithi

The intermittent showers in Karachi brought down the city’s minimum temperature to 25 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature recorded on Thursday was 35 degrees Celsius. Humidity, or the amount of moisture in the air, was 96 per cent.

The official said that Gulshan-i-Hadeed received the maximum amount of rainfall (over 34mm), followed by the airport where over 14mm rainfall was recorded. Other parts of the metropolis and the amount of rainfall they received were: North Karachi (14.5mm), Landhi (12.5mm), PAF Base Faisal (12mm), Nazimabad (11mm), Saddar (9.2mm), Gulistan-i-Jauhar (7.1mm), Old City Area (6mm) and PAF Base Masroor (one millimetre).

The Met Office has forecast that Karachi’s weather is likely to remain cloudy on Friday with chances of thunderstorm and rains.

The official said that rains/thunder showers (with isolated heavy falls) with strong gusty winds may occur at a number of places in southern parts of Sindh — Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions — and scattered showers in Sukkur, Larkana and Shaheed Benazirabad divisions on Friday.

Power outages

While K-Electric claimed that the overall power supply system remained intact despite showers on Thursday, people from several areas complained about power breakdowns.

Residents of Gadap, Lyari, North Karachi, North Nazimabad, Garden East, Federal B Area, Malir, KDA, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Korangi and Defence Housing Authority complained that they had been without power for six to 28 hours and had been constantly complaining to the KE only to be informed about some ‘technical fault’.

Advocate Mohammad Anwar Fazlani, a resident of F.B. Area, Block-6, complained that his area had been without power for the past 28 hours. “We have made several complaints to the concerned department through 118, 8119 and other numbers but without any result,” he stated.

Residents of United Centre, Al Rizwan Apartment and Al Nusrat Square, Block L, North Nazimabad, said they had been without electricity since Wednesday evening. The prolonged disruption of power supply also exhausted the water supply from overhead tanks causing serious problems for the residents, especially women and children, the area people told Dawn.

They said they spent sleepless night and the following day, too, passed without power but the staff concerned of the K-Electric had failed to trace and fix the fault.

“KE is refusing to acknowledge that they are still unable to bring their tripped feeders back on line. When called, they only repeat three things like a parrot ... ‘technical fault’, ‘local fault’ and ‘teams are working to fix the problem’,” said an irate consumer from DHA Phase 7.

“Although power supply was restored to our area yesterday we are facing voltage fluctuation, which could not be fixed till now,” said another consumer from North Nazimabad. A complainant from Garden East said that they couldn’t switch on their water pump to fill the overhead tank due to a missing phase.

According to a KE statement, their Rapid Response team maintained strict vigilance during the second round of showers on Thursday. “The overall power supply system remained intact on the second day of rains as well with very few feeders affected, which were re-energised swiftly.

“Moreover, uninterrupted power supply to strategic installations including airport, major hospitals and Dhabeji was also ensured. KE teams remain in the field to address localised faults and individual queries,” the statement read.

According to a KE spokesperson, KE helpline and ground teams continued to work round the clock to address any localised faults. “Investments and upgrades in power supply systems, operations and processes have aided the power utility to address queries with greater efficiency,” the spokesperson claimed.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2017