KARACHI: A boy was electrocuted in Karachi where the first spell of light monsoon rain wreaked havoc on civic and K-Electric’s system on Monday as people had to endure traffic jams because of flooded roads and streets and electricity outages for hours. 

According to a Meteorological department advisory, Karachi and all lower Sindh districts are likely to receive rain/wind/thunderstorm with a few moderate-to-heavy falls till Friday and the central and upper parts of the province may have similar weather conditions till Saturday. 

Police said a 12-year-old boy died in a rain-related incident in Al-Falah Society on Monday.  

Area SHO Rashid Din said that Hammad Khursheed was riding a bicycle when he got stuck in rainwater accumulated on a street near Malir Halt. He tried to take support of an electric pole in a bid to cross the water, but he suffered an electric shock and died. 

Several areas suffer prolonged power outages; more rain expected today 

The officer said that the family appeared reluctant to pursue the case.

Prolonged power outages  

Power supply to most parts of Karachi was disrupted with the first drop of rain as KE’s electricity distribution network once again appeared fragile piling miseries on people since early morning on the first working day of the week. 

Confirming the outages in almost every part of the city, the KE said that electric supply from its 500 feeders, out of total 1,900, was affected after the first rain of the monsoon season. 

It said that parts of the city were affected due to power shutdown, while the most affect area was Gadap. 

While the power utility claimed that the electricity would be restored as soon as the weather improved, power supply was not restored in several localities even hours after the rain completely stopped in the city. Some residents told Dawn they had been without power for over 11 hours.

 City receives 35mm rainfall 

Under the influence of a lower pressure area formed over east Arabian Sea causing monsoon currents, almost all the city areas received light rain on Monday. 

Data from the Meteorological department showed that during the last 24 hours Gulshan-i-Hadeed received the highest amount of rainfall (35mm, or 1.37 inches) followed by PAF Faisal Base (32mm), Saadi Town (27.8mm), North Karachi (24.4mm), Surjani Town (20.4mm), Landhi (18mm), Old Area Airport (17mm), University Road (16.3mm), Jinnah Terminal (14.2mm), PAF Masroor Base (11.5mm), Nazimabad (12.2mm) and Keamari (5.2mm). 

According to the department, weather is likely to be cloudy with intermittent rain-thunderstorm in Karachi on Tuesday (today).  

The maximum temperature is likely to range between 32 degrees Celsius and 34 degrees Celsius.   

 Murtaza visits city  

Chief Minister’s Adviser and Sindh government’s spokesperson Barrister Murtaza Wahab visited several city areas during rains. 

He was briefed by the officials of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, district administration, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and district municipal corporations about the arrangements to deal with rains. 

Barrister Wahab, who is tipped as the next administrator of Karachi, told reporters that he would do his best to solve the problems of the metropolis since it was his own city. 

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2021