Karachi got more than its share of God’s blessing from the heavens in 2006. While much was written and lamented over, citizens who were caught in the thick of it –- or rather at the deep end of it – will never forget the devastation wreaked by just 56mm of rain.

In the peak calamity hour when citizens were actually struggling for survival, many city officials issued imprudent statements such as, “a city as large as Karachi could never have a proper contingency plan for a situation like this,” City Nazim, Mustafa Kamal; and regarding the six-hour gridlock on the roads due to rain water, “it is not the responsibility of my team but [the responsibility] of the city Nazim.” Falak Khursheed, DIG traffic Karachi. The DHA and Clifton Cantonment Board officials did not even bother with disclaimers of any sort.

While all this is water under the bridge (in the literal sense), little has been done in subsequent months to avert a similar disaster for the coming rains. The brief winter shower in December showed that water still gets trapped in the same areas as it did five months ago.

In the summer rains, it were mainly areas of Defence, Clifton and Bath Island which were completely submerged under rain and sewerage water and all garbage dumps had become displaced from their resting ground clogging street openings and nearby nullahs, leaving the citizens to deal with the emergency ensuing from floating refuse, rain and sewerage water in and around their houses. And of course, Bath Island which had turned into a multi-artery river was rendered ‘un-traversable’ for area residents for an entire week.

The DHA, still taxing its property owners heavily for water and property, has done nothing as a future contingency nor has it paid its residents compensation for damages incurred. The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board too has neither identified all the blocked drains nor has it embarked on a concerted plan to specifically clean out the drainage system of the city — and particularly the calamity prone areas which have been encroached upon by all sorts of land grabbers.

Though a lot was being said and written about the inefficiency of the city government, the DHA and CCB in the post rain scenario, no high level inquiry was ordered/conducted for lack of proactive and emergency measures.

Only one site was demolished where the encroachment jutting out from a palatial house was extending on to a drain outlet in Bath Island. And of course, the drain, subsequently broken, was left open and is till breeding mosquitoes.

On the other hand, the city government’s hastily devised plan of damage control to cover up their initial blunder of land-filling (for commercial purposes) of the vital, natural rain-water drain– the Neher-i-Khayyam – still remains as a project ‘to be continued’ in the year 2007. Blocking Neher-i-Khayyam was the reason why Clifton and DHA areas were so badly affected as never before.

While issuing denials (in the form of advertisements) regarding their ‘commercial plans’ for the Neher, the city government first decided to drain the 18-20 inch rainwater clogged for days near Teen Talwar and on the main and side roads of Khayaban-i-Iqbal after a week of the torrential rain of August 17, 2006.

A four-feet drain was dug up on Khayaban-i-Jami near Agha’s and Delawalla and a drain pipe was installed in the hollowed out four-feet wide space to facilitate the flow of accumulated water. The drain space cutting across the main road, was first covered by a sheet of steel which was damaged in no time by the passing traffic. To rectify the damage the pipe was replaced and then covered with a thicker sheet again. This project — started five months ago — extends to all the side lanes along cross roads of Khayaban-i-Jami and Khayaban-i-Iqbal, passing near the underpass areas as well.

It is still dug up and is a source of inconvenience to passing vehicles, besides posing a danger to pedestrians. Like numerous excavated areas around the city, here too the sign stating, ‘under construction, sorry for inconvenience’, hails the new year of 2007.

The vital question that still remains unanswered; are we any more prepared for the next monsoon rains? — Maheen A. Rashdi