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KARACHI, Dec 23: The city doesn’t receive a lot of rain. But each time there’s a downpour, the people are caught unawares.
Monday’s rain was no exception. It seemed to come out of the blue. The Met Office had predicted rain for the northern parts of the country, but not for Karachi.
On the contrary, it had said the Karachiites would be getting a cloudy day, not a rainy day.
The prediction was proved wrong at about 11.30am on Monday when rain — accompanied by strong winds of up to 35 nautical miles — hit most parts of the city.
However, not much damage was done. This was apparently because the rain didn’t last long. Also, the maximum amount of rainfall reported at any part of the city was only 18.9mm, which means less than an inch.
According to the Met Office’s forecaster — Mohiuddin Siddiqui — North Karachi received the most amount of rainfall. Garden and Masroor areas got only 7mm. And the airport received only 3mm.
The rain, though not very severe, brought considerable disruption to the city, especially its roads. The under-construction roads were affected particularly badly.
Jahangir Road, reduced to something of a dirt path due to the ongoing repair work, became virtually unpliable. The Business Recorder Road suffered the same fate.
Under both these roads, sewers were laid recently, and they haven’t been metalled properly yet. The nearby roundabout, that of Gurumandir area, was the scene of long traffic jams.
By the evening, water had been drained from most roads. However, at some places one could see pools and puddles of water.
In the Empress Market area, the rain caused a loosening of the dirt and filth on the roads, which had hardened since the last rainfall. The strong winds visiting this area whipped up and threw about a lot of them.
Due to low visibility, vehicular traffic slowed down to a crawl. This is why traffic jams began happening.
The strong winds seriously disrupted the services provided by both the KESC and the PTCL. Many areas were still in dark till our going to press because of the KESC’s failure to remove the faults caused by rain. Similarly many telephone sets were lifeless.
Several cases in which motorcycles and scooters had slipped were reported. The strong winds toppled several billboards and trees. Also, many antennas were thrown about in the strong winds.
At least one person was electrocuted near a leather garment factory in the Korangi Industrial Area.
Meanwhile, owing to the rain, temperature fell considerably. The maximum temperature recorded was 24.5 degrees centigrade. And the minimum was 18.2 degrees.
FORECAST: According to the Met Office staff, Monday’s rain was caused by a weather system which has now passed from over Karachi. There are, therefore, no chances of rain on Tuesday.
The office has predicted a “fair to partly cloudy day”. The morning is expected to be quite hazy, though. The minimum temperature is forecast to be between 14 to 16 degrees centigrade.
ACCIDENTS: Edhi Ambulance service has rushed its vehicles to Winder, Balochistan, on the report of a traffic accident due to slippery road. No report of casualty has so far been received, adds APP.
A truck (JS-7845) overturned near Toll Plaza on Super Highway, injuring a cleaner, Ejaz. He was rushed to Fatima Baqai Hospital for treatment.
roads flooded: The first winter showers on Monday disrupted civic life in low-lying areas as they flooded various roads and streets exposing tall claims of civic agencies.
The rain accompanied by strong winds began at 11.35am and continued for about half an hour. It badly affected vehicular traffic in many parts of the city.
The situation turned worst in suburban areas of the city where people had to face a lot of inconvenience in getting public transport to reach their destinations because of traffic jams.
The rain played havoc in the Old city areas, particularly in Saddar, Lyari, Keamari and Site Town areas, where civic agencies had made no arrangements to face such a situation.
Civic agencies have not even cleaned up stormwater drains in many parts
of the city. As a result, streets and roads in congested areas have been inundated by rainwater.
The rainwater standing on roads and streets has further added to people’s miseries in kutchi abadis as now it has become too difficult to walk on roads and streets because of sludge.
Conditions in many parts of Lyari and Saddar Towns are worse.
There is filth and dirt everywhere and one could smell stench while walking in the streets and roads in parts of Saddar and Lyari Towns which include Kharadar, Mithadar, Ranchhore Lines, Nishtar Road, Chand Bibi Road, Baghdadi, Nawabad, Kalri and Khadda.
People fear that life will become more miserable for them because it takes weeks to drain away stagnant filthy water as past experience shows.
Prolonged electricity failures in many parts of the city, particularly in Old city areas, where most people live in multi-storey buildings, added to people’s problems.
The unexpected winter rains show that the city government or the Towns administrations have not prepared any emergency plan to meet emergency situations created by rain.
No cleaning up of major stormwater drain had been carried out in their locality, neither had encroachments been removed, a resident of Mohammedi Colony, Mauripur Road, said.
This is in spite of the fact Town Nazims had held several meetings a couple of months where they had discussed plans to meet any emergency rain situation.
It was decided that effective steps should be taken to clean up stormwater drains and sewerage lines. It was also decided that in case of any emergency, arrangements would be made for shifting people to relief centres which were planned to be set up in nearby schools and community centres.
The Nazims of Lyari and Saddar Towns had specially appealed to the city government to provide them necessary equipment. They had also sought the assistance of the water and sanitation department for replacement of all old and broken manhole covers with new ones. But now it seems that no foolproof measures have been taken.
