Flies in the day, mosquitoes at night!

NINE-year-old schoolboy Anas Ghazanfar was looking forward to going to Hawkesbay or Sandspit beaches with his family as his summer vacations came to an end. Like many other children, he was hoping that this pleasant cloudy weather in Karachi would be an ideal time for a picnic, at the beach, the blue bottles notwithstanding.

But he was disappointed to know that the road to Hawkesbay had been washed away. He did not completely understand what the expression "washed away" truly implied, until his sister Amra, 15, told him that there was no more a motorable road link to the beach. And he said that "this is very bad" I think he repeated that to express his disappointment.

Let’s see what has happened. A three-column photograph published on these pages a few days back showed the state of the road and the caption said that "the newly constructed main Hawkesbay Road washed away by the recent rains".

There we have a tradition of "newly constructed" or newly built roads and buildings and assorted structures being washed away. And that there is no accountability, no one is held responsible, no details are disclosed if and when any departmental or other action has been taken. We have a tradition that condones these failures, and this mishandling of public funds. It happens everywhere in the country, remarks the average citizen in his leisurely, cynical, and laid back style.

Karachi prides in the fact that it has the sea and the beaches, much as they are a far cry from what they should be. There is frequent emphasis on tourism, both domestic and foreign. And one Karachiite angry with the washing away of this road, said that this only symbolises the fact that tourism in the country remains on the back burner.

But this is not the only damage that the recent rains have done. The rains have further eroded the credibility of the rhetoric that precedes the rains, year after year. Various civic agencies (city government, cantonment boards, the DHA, the Kesc and others) have done their homework that the stormwater drains have been cleaned and an emergency profile has been put into place. Phone numbers are notified to the public, and let me state at this stage that when this happens that is the beginning of the process of disbelief. They just don’t believe what is said -- and in fact this distrust of official assurances is spread over a large canvass. Being ready for rains is peanuts as an issue when it comes to lack of credibility.

Credibility! That is the issue one needs to focus on in the wake of the hurt and the injury that Karachi has sustained. That has made the city bleed yet again on a count which has nothing to do with violence or terrorism or crime. It is a different sort of crime. Many of us are inclined to believe that the graph of lack of credibility has further fallen. And so has faith in the promises and the comfort theories that are expounded by the decision makers at all levels.

What makes it perplexing still, and more worrying is that the decision makers and men in authority do not appear to perceive this, underlined one Karachiite. Then he referred to a statement issued by the Defence Housing Authority with reference to the monsoon rains here. The DHA Administrator asked the residents to "exhibit understand and extend their cooperation in augmenting the DHA’s efforts to combat the rain emergency effectively". But this resident said that the DHA statement concedes the fact that "the best of efforts and plans could not fully meet the enormity of the havoc caused by the intermittent downpour. The rain havoc did cause unprecedented disruption of life in some areas." And he found it amusing that the claim was that some areas were disrupted.

This statement also reflects the fact that the various civic agencies and utilities in the city do not have a harmonious view when it comes to rising to the expectations of citizens. The DHA statement says "the assertion made by the Kesc that the DHA did not cooperate with the power utility to facilitate it in repair works for restoring electricity supply was simply fabricated. No such incident happened nor did the Kesc team contact any DHA official for the purpose. As an ordinary citizen, I find this kind of adversarial relationship reflective of many situations in our lives. As citizens we are familiar with the police setup wherein a road accident can become a disputed question of jurisdiction between two police stations while a man can be in agonizing pain and lying on the road.

Within 48-hours of the rains that fell on the city there surfaced an open discord between the Karachi Port Trust and the City District Government Karachi on the issue of the underpass being unable to meet the challenge of rain water. Public credibility ahs been eroded on this issue and right now the citizen doesn’t know what to believe or whom to believe.

The frustration of sustained disbelief and prolonged doubt is aggravated by the fact that while the city has begun drying after the wet weather, rain water still plagues Karachi’s posh areas, like Defence, Clifton, Bath Island. Streets and open plots becoming breeding grounds for flies and mosquitoes. While the DHA and the CCB team up to fight this health hazard, those of us who have cats get to watch the delightful, amusing picture of these adorable pets chasing flies. That is to say, flies in the day and mosquitoes at night.

With reference to Karachi monsoon 2006, a relevant question is who let us down more? They all let the city down, no denying that. But who is more to blame? They all promised before the rains and they all disappointed when the rains came.

One consequence of all this is that the public perception, awareness and expectation of civic agencies has grown but the civic agencies have all been unable to rise to the occasion.

Even in the elitist locality called Bath Island, the picture of neglect is both humongous and worrying. A resident of Defence Phase-II, engineer Syed Ghazanfar Habib, was blunt when he said that on the question of rain and rainwater standing on the roads the DHA had let down the residents. Similar views have been expressed with regard to the roads and streets that have developed potholes or which have caved in creating traffic hazards for weeks to come.

A friend of mine was seemingly lenient in his view when he said that we would overcome this stinking scenario, but the thought that all this will happen in the next monsoon as well makes the heart bleed. He is hell bent that no lessons have been learnt because no heads have rolled. No contractors and builders have been named in all this. Everyone has a clean slate. Only the city is stinking.