As rain-related death toll soared to 17, the Pak Army on Tuesday stepped in to undertake rescue operations after Thado Dam overflowed into nearby villages on the Superhighway-M9. The two-day downpour virtually turned many parts of the city into huge pools of water. City Mayor Wasim Akhtar urged the federal government to lend a helping hand in order to deal with heavy rains that have badly battered Karachi, a city of teeming millions.
Karachi's trade and commercial with academic activities remained suspended for another day, as businessmen blamed the poor infrastructure and politicization of civic issues for billions of rupees losses. Trains were running behind schedule for two days during the last two days. Delayed air services made the passengers suffer more from inclement weather. Prolonged and unscheduled power cuts also continued to haunt the city for another rainy day.
The dam overflowed its surplus water from the downpour accumulation into the plains of Saadi Town that is located near the Superhighway also known as M9 motorway. There were flooding fears across villages of Gadap Town despite Pak Army timely stepped in to help the rain affected people. One of the Superhighway tracks leading to Hyderabad from Karachi remained closed for nine hours after rains hit the city but later was opened for traffic.
In Shahbaz Goth, Pak Army personnel used their boats to transport the trapped people to safe areas. Near the Memon Goth in Malir, water reservoirs overflooded from rains that spilled over into the agriculture plains of the city.
Over the past 24 hours, Surjani received maximum rainfall of up to 119.1 mm, Saddar 98 mm, P.A.F Faisal 71 mm, North Karachi 64.7 mm, Jinnah Terminal 60.2 mm, University Road 54.8 mm, Gulshan-e-Hadid 52 mm, PAF Masroor 48 mm, Landhi 43 mm, Nazimabad 39 mm and Keamari 14.1 mm. The Met Office says no further rainfalls for the city in the next 24 hours that may give a sigh of relief to the public.
Saeed Ghani, Sindh Local Government Minister, blamed the K-Electric for rainwater accumulation. "Still hundreds of feeders of K-Electric stand tripped. Despite 36 hours have elapsed but power supply is suspended," he said, adding that the electricity load shedding widely hampered pumping out of rainwater from city's roads.
"Nepra has taken serious notice of media reports regarding power outages and loss of human lives due to cases of electrocution in Karachi. It is disturbing to note that the Karachi Electric (KE) complaint centers are not responding to telephonic calls of consumers and therefore Nepra has directed KE to submit a report about the failure of its pre-emptive measures as the rain was expected. NEPRA has also directed KE to take remedial measures for restoration of power supply at the earliest," a statement of the Nepra on its official website says.
The City Mayor, Wasim Akhtar, in a letter to the Federal Maritime Affairs Ministry requested for help saying: "Due to this unprecedented cloud burst, the rain and water drains, which are vital to take the storm water to sea, have been choked and the city is inundated with water. This has added insult to injury as water has entered into the houses leaving people stranded. The rescue work as also been hampered due to standing water in the city. Since the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation has serious shortage of funds, therefore, [the city government] requesting the Ministry of Maritime Affairs to assist in the time of emergency."
Comments
Comments are closed.