Karachi: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has disclosed that Thursday’s record torrential rain in Karachi threatened his own safety. While on an emergency visit of the city at night, he had to abandon his vehicle on the flooded Aiwan-e-Saddar Road after it was submerged in rainwater.
“The water level reached around till my back as I waded through it to come out of the water as other vehicles were called to reach back,” said Shah while speaking about the widespread devastation caused by maximum 230 millimetres of rain in Karachi in the span of 24 hours. Till Saturday afternoon, a number of residential localities were still inundated as prolonged failure of electric supply lasting up to 40 hours was another major cause of trouble for citizens in the city.
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“Never before so much rain had occurred in the entire city as no doubt rainwater didn’t get drain”, said Shah.
“So was our confidence also shaken as before this rain, we were confident that we would be able to control the situation but this rainfall has made us realize that we have to do much for this city,” he added.
He said that all the encroachments on storm water drains of Karachi would be demolished to restore them to their original capacity to carry flood waters after torrential rains.
Extreme flooding
He could not visit the famous Nursery road intersection on Sharea Faisal on Thursday night as the area had extreme flooding there. “The next day I visited Nursery area at 10 am after the rainwater was drained as a shopkeeper there showed me that flood water level was till the signboard of his shop that was 12 feet high as there was so much devastation,” he said.
“The situation was even worse in the posh and expensive areas of the city but people living there have the ability to stand again on their own feet but we will surely resolve infrastructure issues of their localities,” he continued, adding that his government would help the deprived settlements in the city devastated by the heavy rains.
Shah visited the shanty settlement of Yousuf Goth in suburban area of District West of Karachi. “There was so much water as people there were very much concerned. I promised with them that once the situation gets normal after drainage of rainwater, a drainage scheme for the area will be constructed under my own supervision so that such a situation doesn’t occur again,” he said.
Shah says his government will take care of the shopkeepers and small traders in the city whose investment of the lifetime had washed away due to the heavy rainfall as surveys would be conducted to assess their damages adding help would be sought from the federal government to compensate for damages. He mentioned that Prime Minister Imran Khan had phoned him on the night of torrential rains in Karachi and promised to extend all out support.
He negated the impression that the authorities of his government were missing and seen nowhere in the city during the torrential rainfall as the administrative officials had remained awake all the night to rescue people in distress.
He informed that since 6th July, 2020 when the monsoon rains started in the province, 80 people had lost their lives in different cities of Sindh. These include 47 people in Karachi, 10 in Hyderabad, five in Shaheed Benazirabad, 11 in Mirpurkhas, six in Larkana, and one person in Sukkur. He said that people lost their lives due to the mishaps of drowning in flood waters, electrocution, wall and roof collapse, and also lightning strikes.
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