Karachi remains submerged in darkness hours after last showers

Published July 31, 2019
Some parts of Karachi remained without power since the past 48 hours. — Reuters/File
Some parts of Karachi remained without power since the past 48 hours. — Reuters/File

A large number of neighbourhoods in Karachi remained submerged in darkness on Tuesday night — day 2 of the first spell of monsoon rain, which had hit the city a day earlier.

According to a survey on social media by Dawn.com, these included, but were not limited to, North Karachi, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad No 4, Malir Halt, Federal B Area, Gulistan-e-Johar, Defence Phases 1, 5, 6, 8, and Clifton Block 5, 6 and 7.

Some respondents from North Karachi said that electricity had been restored after a period of 36 hours, whereas others at the time this report was filed were not as lucky and were still enduring a power outage.

Those residing in North Nazimabad reported a similarly long outage, ranging from 36-40 hours and still continuing in some pockets.

One Facebook user from Defence Phase 1 said the entire area had been "in the dark [for] over 30hrs". A Defence Phase 5 resident said it had been "almost 28 hours" since power was shut down.

Clifton residents reported being without electricity for 12-48 hours, with one from block 6 complaining of "very low voltage" since 1am last night.

More bad news followed.

According to K-Electric, owing to an overflow of Lath Dam, a critical situation was being faced at the KDA grid.

"Monsoon downpour has caused Lath Dam near Super Highway to overflow. The floodwater has entered K-Electric’s KDA Grid station, located at Gulzar-e-Hijri Scheme 33, one of the most critical grids of KE’s 220kV grid and an interconnection point between KE and NTDC," said a statement by the power provider on Facebook.

"As an emergency safety measure we are forced to suspend supply to feeders associated with this grid. This has affected power supply to parts of Sohrab Goth, Abulhassan Isphahani Road, Super Highway, KWSB’s NEK Pumping station among few others," the statement continued.

"We are working closely with all authorities to control this situation. All possible resources including trenches, water pumps and sand bags around the grid have been deployed to block the water."

K-Electric warned that if water level continued to rise it would be "forced to completely shut down power from this grid to ensure the safety of our people and equipment".

Resultantly, power supply will be affected to several areas including Gulshan, Azizabad, Liaqatabad, Malir, FB Area, Surjani, Shadman, Johar, Shah Faisal among many others, it added.

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