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.
ShahidnUSA, there is lots of Scuba diving done around Karachi. There is a place called ‘Charna Island’ which is a rocky island that is roughly 3 to 4 kilometers away from the mainland. It is considered paradise for scuba diving and fish watching. You can see several photos of this beautiful island at one of our earlier posts at ATP here
Once I was having a dinner in an Indian resturant in Paris.
While I was bored watching nervous waiters who could nt answer my questions about their own menu making me feel all nerdy and rude. I peeked into the next room, where there was a slides presentation in progress. A french scooba diver was
showing beatiful pictures of under water life, marines, coral reeves and schools of fish. I coudnt tell the ethnicity of audience.
But what pleasantly surprised me was that those pictures were from no where other but from our karachi.
Among all chaos and failure of water drainage, the only good news is filling up of Hub Dam. This dam supplies drinking water to most of the Northern and Western districts of the city and water level here is highly dependent on rains in catchment area. Any rain in Hub dam’s catchment area is welcome because it ensures a bit longer water supply from the Dam. Feeding daily water to a megapolis of 10M is not a joke. Therefore this rain does have some blessing for the city.
It is with great sadness in my mind , that I have been reading this post and comments !
-My thoughts and my dua is for the people of Karachi,
once again it is the common people that are paying the price for throughly bad , and incompetent city-planning regarding infrastructure.
(It is not , sad to say , surprisingly that such an iccidencene can take place , in “memoir`de ” Foreign Policy Journal , according to them Pakistan (sadly) is amongst the 10 failed states in the world).
May the Mercy of Rabb-ul-Alameen be upon the people of Pakistan.
Water drainage problems are partially caused by encroachment of natural drains and ill planning.
Our house flooded for the first time in 30 years because the Nala is completely filled up used as a bus stop. On top of that the Muhallah comittee decided to build a very high footpath bloking all natural paths for water drain