Due to weather effects, light, medium and heavy rains are continuing intermittently during the last few days. The current spell of rain is a result of a westerly weather wave which the Meteorological Department had predicted would bring thundershowers across the country in the first week of May. Balochistan was severely affected by them.

Heavy rains and floods caused havoc in different areas. Many buildings and crops were damaged. 11 people lost their lives. A herd of cattle was swept away by the flood. Sabi, Jacobabad, Harnai Punjab highways are closed for traffic at various places. There are reports of floods in Kech, Daki, Barkhan, Awaryan, Khuzdar, Sorab, Ziarat, Harnai, Jhob, Loralai. According to the PDM report, during the next 48 to 72 hours heavy rains may flood Musakhel, Barkhan and other areas. There are also reports of heavy rain and lightning in different areas of Karachi. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif alerted the federal and provincial institutions on the situation of urgent rains, to use all resources to help the citizens, where necessary, to keep the public safe. Transferring to areas, monitoring of inter-provincial highways, instructions to ensure the flow of traffic, appealed to the people to take precautionary measures and cooperate with the government institutions. These instructions of the Prime Minister are timely. Government institutions need to be ready at all times to deal with emergency situations. Pakistan is among the ten countries most at risk of climate change and faces highly variable weather conditions in the coming months and years, including torrential rains, devastating floods, extreme heat waves and rapid melting of glaciers. may fall The government should also make immediate actionable plans to reduce the effects of natural calamities.The condition is common in our urban areas including Islamabad which is touted to be built on modern lines with great panning and civic sense.

Time has come t take measures such as increasing green infrastructure, and implementing adequate land-use planning and regulation not only in the urban centres. There are a great number of municipality corporations, cantonment boards and highway authorities and other federal, provincial and local authorities and they must work diligently to cope with their responsibility to enforce the existing regulations. Integrating disaster-risk reduction into sectoral policy and the national agenda seems to be piecemeal and lacks concerted efforts. Similarly, authorities constitutionally mandated to work in all phases of disaster management appear to limit their role to reactive disaster response, relief and rehabilitation, neglecting proactive measures such as disaster-risk reduction. People should not have to become homeless, or lose their lives or livelihoods, because no one is paying attention. Authorities have blamed private housing societies, insisting that the flooding was caused due to violation of regulations governing construction. According to an official, the flooding in Sector E-11-2 was caused due to the construction of a road over a stormwater drain. The drain collapsed because of the illegally-built road and the overflowing rainwater entered houses. Action must be taken against the erring housing societies, as their violating the rules has cost two precious lives.

It is ironic that whether Islamabad or Karachi, the authorities concerned come into action only after rain paying havoc and they’d not make any preparation in advance. In case of Islamabad, the authorities did a great job by clearing the areas of water quite swiftly and restoring the electricity supply but the question remains as to why such a late response to impending dangers. Manson season is also up Karachiites and ne would advise the Sindh govt to make prior preparation for the onslaught of the rainy season. The repeat of last year torrential and abnormal rains is also possible in Karachi as had happened in the mega city last year. The civic organizations must clean drains and remove encroachments and the preparatory work must be completed before the monsoon season starts. Though the ‘climate change and adverse weather patterns’ must be blamed for the last year’s floods and disaster but this does not mean that authorities are not responsible for what happens in our urban centres across the country. It is the mega cities including Karachi and Islamabad’s administration’s responsibility to take preemptive steps while taking the early warnings from the Met offices seriously and form a comprehensive policy to deal with any emergency in case of  abnormal rains It may be mentioned here that last during the  summer months  Karachi like other parts of the city received a heavy rain spell which caused urban flooding. The torrential rains of last summer broke a 54-year record. With the monsoon season upon us, the Met office has once again predicted heavy rains in Karachi and other parts of the country as alarming one. Balochistan is already in grip of heavy rains which has started affecting the dwellers in big way. And in the wake of such predictions, we need to have an effective crisis management system marked by efficient mechanism to deal with the abnormal rains in Karachi and other urban centres. It is good to see that the KMC and the DMCs of all the districts have started cleanliness work of rain drains in Karachi. DMC Central, DMC East, DMC South have been cleaning the drains on emergency basis to prevent the areas that are in their limits from disasters.

Meanwhile, under the special direction of Provincial Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah and under the supervision of Administrator DMC South Dr. Afshan Rabab Syed, the work of cleaning rain drains in different areas by B&R Department is going on an emergency basis, in which necessary machinery along with manpower is being provided and used.

 In this regard, the work of cleaning and desalination of drains is going on in Mirza Adam Khan Road Lyari, Mauripur Service Road, ICI Bridge, Abdullah Haroon Road Metropole Hotel, Bagh Ibn Qasim Marina Road, Ocean Tower Khayaban Iqbal Clifton, Barbecue Tonight Khayaban Saadi while the work of cleaning manholes and chambers around Empress Market Saddar, Mobile Market, MPA Hostel and Sindh High Court has been completed.  On this occasion, Administrator South Dr Afshan Rabab Syed said that the cleaning of the rain drains located within the limits of District South will definitely reduce the public sufferings and problems during the rainy season. That the cleaning work of all the drains should be completed by maintaining the speed and continuity of the work so that the public can be saved from suffering and trouble during the rainy season. All available resources and manpower should be utilized so that the desired results can be achieved and effective steps should be taken to clean the drains as well as eliminate the encroachments on them so that there is no obstruction in the drainage of rainwater during the rains.

Published in The Daily National Courier, May, 05 2023

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