Torrential rain on Monday lashed the city, leading to stagnation of water on main roads and gushing of sewerage that affected business activities and general life in the city, traders said. The first spell of spring season rain hit the metropolis, leaving citizens largely disturbed for little preparations to cope with the deluge. In some areas, rainwater accumulated on roads led to traffic jams.
The met office forecasts partly cloudy weather with chances of thunderstorm/ rain for the city during the next 24 hours. It recoded 23 millimetre of rain at its Karachi Airport observatory. Many roads remained flooded for entire day for lack of plan by civic authorities to pump out the accumulated rainwater, traders complained and said the municipal officials were absent after rain.
Spillover of sewerage water on a number of major roads and streets added to the citizens' problems to make their way to workplaces, markets, schools, hospitals etc, they said. "The old city area of the city where major wholesale markets are located was severally affected by the torrential rain which hampered business activities largely," said Chairman Sindh Tajir Ittehad (STI), Jamil Paracha.
The lack of local government system in the city, he said, has caused a huge financial loss to traders during the "short-spanned" downpour. "No one from municipal department came to the help of traders to flush out accumulated rainwater," he complained. He pointed out that a number of markets in old city area remained closed for stagnant rainwater on roads and streets. "If there is rainwater on roads leading to markets or inside markets then how customers could come to the markets," he added.
M.A. Jinnah Road remained completely inundated after the rain lashed the city, he said, adding that the inundation kept shops in roadside markets closed. "Paper market and cloth markets on M.A. Jinnah Road could not open after early morning rain," said Paracha. He said the poor sewerage system caused trouble to traders as Jodia Bazaar's streets turned muddy and slippery to disturb grain supplies. "The lack of business activities after rain inflicted at least Rs 1 billion loss on traders," he claimed.