Karachi better prepared for monsoon this year

Every year monsoon rains bring multiple woes to Karachi’s 16 million people: Power outages, telecom failures, roads subsiding, sewage spillages, abandoned cars, electrocution caused by fallen wires, sign-boards falling on pedestrians, inaccessible hospitals and more.

Media reports said 200 people died in heavy rain in June, mainly due to electrocution, falling trees, house collapses and road accidents.

For the 60 percent of the city’s population living in slum-like conditions life becomes particularly hard, especially because of the dilapidated or non-existent drainage systems.

But this year things could be different, according to Mohammad Khan Bashir, spokesperson of the City District Government, Karachi (CDGK).

“Water won’t stand. Karachiites can enjoy the rains this season for a change. They can even go out in the rain, eat `pakoras’ [fried dumplings] and not have to worry about getting caught in a flood,” Bashir told IRIN.

The CDGK, which administers 34 percent of the city (the rest belongs to other land-owning agencies), has managed to complete a proper drainage system along 75 of the main arteries under its jurisdiction over the past two years.

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“Even the inner roads and alleys will remain dry, I guarantee,” Bashir said, adding, however, that about 10 percent of the work had not yet been completed.

He said 1,339 computerised emergency centres operating 24 hours a day in 18 locations had been set up “to counter any mishap”, and CDGK had also invested in machinery worth US$10,311,462, including dumper trucks and some mobile pumping equipment.

“Race against time”

“It’s a race against time; we work in tandem with the various other civic agencies,” says, Aziz Suhrawardy, administrator of the Clifton Cantonment Board, another administrative unit of Karachi.

An engineer, and a resident of the Defence Housing Association (DHA) administrative unit, Suhrawardy is pleased to see how the DHA has worked “night and day to get so much work done in just one year” with technical assistance from a Chinese firm. “I’m confident the water won’t stand and flood the DHA this year.”

According to Suhrawardy, the area has 35km of refurbished drains. “Seventy-five percent of the work is complete, and by 31 July 90 percent will be completed.”
 

Photo: Zofeen Ebrahim/IRIN

Karachi is getting ready for the monsoon season

The DHA has also set up teams of 40 individuals, each led by a mechanical engineer, who will operate pumps and mobile hydrants in an emergency: “Within half an hour, our personnel and pumps will be in place to deal with any situation”, Deputy Director Special Assignment Cell Major (Retd.) Syed Javed Munawwar, told The News newspaper.

Media reports say the DHA has spent just over two-thirds of the US$30 million set aside for the drainage project thus far.

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