A day and night long monsoon rains have left 28 people (later updated to 33+) dead in Karachi and other areas of Southern Pakistan and washed away infrastructure, including at least two bridges.
170mm rain has been recorded in the past 24 hours. Atleast one newspaper is claiming it to be the record rainfall in 30 years (I am unable to verify the claim). Anyways, as always what was supposed to be blessing of nature has once again became bad news. Electricity supply across the city lies in shatters as circuit breakers started tripping with first drops of rain. Atleast two bridges in Karachi have washed away and several homes lost their roofs and walls besides the loss of 28 precious lives.
This report in The News describes some of the havoc brought by these rains
At least 33 people were killed and over 70 injured in various accidents and mishaps as a result of the unprecedented catastrophic downpours in Karachi. The bridges near Hawks Bay and Airport washed away in heavy showers.
According to police and hospital sources, the first monsoonal showers triggered various accidents in which at least 33 people were killed and over 70 injured owing to collapses of rooftops and walls, electrocution and drowning.
Two brothers—Salman and Usman—lost their lives as the wall of their house collapsed in Musa Colony. Two brothers died in collapse of rear wall of Rangers headquarters in Mujahid Colony. Meantime, the bodies of Majid 19 and Abid 17 have been recovered from Qayyumabad nullah. Zaman s/o Sher Afzal was electrocuted in Mehmoodabad-8. A woman passed away owing to suffocation; while, four people lost consciousness.
A man was electrocuted in Lines Area. A child drowned in stream of Machchar Colony. A portion from sixth storey of a building fell on an adjoining building, killing man, his wife, their two children Rehman 5 and Rutaba 7; while, Muhsin 10 was injured. A housetop in Iqbal Market in Orangi Town collapsed injuring Rabia Khatoon 28, her daughter Ayesha 4 and Umar 7. They were rushed to hospital, where they succumbed to injuries.
Bukhtiar 26 and Zahir Shah 50 were killed in Orangi Town house collapse; while, Muhammed Asif lost his life by drowning in water in Abudr Rehman Goth area of Hawks Bay. Two labourers were electrocuted at a textile Mill in Site. The electricity wires snapped near Akbari Masjid in Korangi Bangali Para, electrocuting Nur Muhammed 40. Also, a KESC employee Kalandar bux 38 was killed in Liyari. In other incidents of electrocution, Abdur Rehman 19 was killed at Jahangir Road, Muhammed Wali 20 in Ranchore Line, son and father in Shirin Jinnah Colony and Adnan 40 was killed in Korangi Nasir Colony.
11 people were injured in collapse of wall of a house in Mangopir area near Hamdard University. While, over 70 were injured in various incidents of collapses of rooftops, walls and pylons in Orangi Town, Site, Dawood Goth, Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of Shanti Nagar, Ittehad Town, Lasi Goth, Musa Colony and Taiser Town. A bridge washed away near Maripur police station at Hawks Bay Road, causing traffic to and from Hawks Bay to be blocked. Meantime, a bridge, linking Airport to Gulistan-e-Jauhar washed away near Airport Security Forces headquarter in rainwater, causing to obstruct the way.
The photo above shows Liaqatabad underpass filled up with water during the rains. Once again all the planning and engineering that goes behind designing an underpass failed. This is not the first time that newly built underpasses change into water ponds with every major rain.
The photo to the right shows boys swimming in accumulated rain water on I.I. Chundrigar Road. This road as many of our readers may know is called the Wall Street/Financial Capital of Pakistan. With children swimming on this major road gives an idea of how bad is the water drainage system in the city.
I live in Karachi and I also think it was bad planning! Rain is nothing out of the blue or anything abnormal, it rains every year and it is a blessing, yet we don’t know how to use this blessing so we blame the weather/rain for our loss. If we maintain our drains and prepare well, we can actually use the rain. We lost electricity on Saturday night when the heavy rains started around 9- 10pm. After about an hour we started noticing that the water outside our house was now increasing rapidly. Within in 10 mins we couldn’t see our flower pots anymore. My mother in law suggested that we use this water by opening the lid for the overhead tank. Who knows when the electricity will restore and we were already low on water. After my husband followed her instructions he went outside to take pictures, by this time the rain was almost up to our 3rd step. At that time, he noticed a car outside with a man in it. You can just imagine how high the water was since the handles were not visible. My husband helped him get out and then tried pushing his car in our drive way. This was almost impossible since the pressure of the water was so high that one person could not even keep the gate open. Some 6 teenagers were also stuck in the rain and were trying to pass by to reach the main road. When they saw my husband struggling they came to help. All helped to get the car in the boundry wall, and close the gate. In that time our gate in the back broke open from the strong flow of water. Anything that we kept outside our house washed away. Then all the young gentlemen helped my husband tie the back gate. All this happened within an hour. They all stayed till early morning and then left for their homes.
We spent all of Saturday night just cleaning out the water from different areas where it had come in from. The electricity did not restore till today (Monday) morning at 9am only for an hour, at 10am we were out of power again. The water that we had gathered from the rain is the only water that we used and are still using since that night.
It was tough on everyone…if the government can plan and maintain our sewerage and drainage systems, the rain would not cause so much damage. It rained so much but we didn’t take advantage of Allah’s blessing and try to use it. It is sad to know people lost their loved ones in this storm.
Three more photos added to the post
It am amazed at the incompetence of civil engineers and developers who have built and planned houses and colonies in Karachi. The first rule of handling rain storms of the magnitude of 170 mm per day is to locate storm water ponds (lakes) in each subdivision (neighbourhood). Water is collected initially in these ponds and then released slowly to the storm water drains since the drains cannot handle peak flows during heavy rains. We teach this design concept in the first course of civil engineering in USA. I do not know why this is not implemented in Karachi even in the most expensive neighbourhoods like Defense Society.
I called home last night and I was told that this time water came inside the rooms, something that never happened in 30+ years we’ve lived in our house. Ofcourse with passage of time houses start sinking in the ground and street levels keep rising because of several layers of asphalt which are laid every few years (mostly before elections). Still water coming into bedrooms came as a shocker to our family.
We cannot really blame this on the ‘rain’ this is about bad planning and bad infrastructure and disregard for the lives of the poor.