When one gets seven inches of rain over four hours, even the most sophisticated of systems are bound to fail. I remember a few years ago, the town of Bound Brook, NJ, which is right by where I used to work, got submerged due to heavy downpours and remained so for about a week. It happens. Unfortunately, it happened to Karachi.

Everyone in Karachi has a story to tell.

1. The pipes bring in storm water to the pond/man made lake at lower levels. Once water level reaches high enough it flows from the pond in other pipe thru what you may call a spill way.

2. The expensive houses in Pakistan are priced at one crore rupees ($120,000). However, property tax paid by the owner is only 15000 rupees ($182). Compare this to a very small home in US which may cost $120000 but property taxes for this house will be $1500-$1800 or 9 times more than in Pakistan. This may explain lack of roads, drainage and good government schools in major cities of Pakistan. Of course this does not bother the rich people like generals, feudal lords, and bureaucrats who then use the corrupt money saved by not paying taxes to send their kids to expensive private schools and universities in USA and Britain.