The Pakistani Spectator

Karachiites breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that a rain system over Madhya Pradesh was heading towards the city of Karachi and heavy rains were expected for the next couple of days. Now call it more of a norm in Pakistan, that the predictions put out by the institutions is hardly believed by most of today’s people, because what ever they say, something totally opposite to it happens. I for one, had no belief that such a thing was about to happen.

As I was in Lahore, I got a text from a friend stating the bad weather situation looming ahead and was advised to cut my trip short and return before the sky burst open. I returned and found the following next day to be as hot as it would have normally been in Karachi. This confirmed my presumption that all this talk was nothing more than just B.S.

How ever, I found out that I had been completely wrong; an unexpected change in weather caught me off guard when I woke up the next day late in the afternoon. The sky was covered with black clouds and the sun was no where to be seen. The menacing roar of the clouds threatened that it would be raining cats and dogs in just a couple of moments.

And so it did, starting off with a nice pleasant drizzle, one that provokes people to head out of their homes to enjoy the pleasant weather, not knowing that Mother Nature has bigger and better things in store for them. Soon after that drizzle, it literally rained like all hell had broken loose. Still people were out on the streets, enjoying the rain, as thirst from their fast had broken them down, and the rain seemed to have rejuvenated everyone, even those who kept to the comfort of their beds and laptops.

Almost a month has passed since there was rain in the city of Karachi, so this was certainly one such thing that the people of Karachi were wishing for. I remember last time when it rained, I wrote a blog titled “Be Careful What You Wish For” In it, I wrote about the painstaking endurance of days long power cuts, wading through waist deep water on streets and every other possible havoc that the rain could have wreaked.

Yesterday’s rain gives no other scenario. Every thing was the same, the same power cuts, the same puddles (rather rivers) of water on the streets, the impotent “state of the art” drainage system in D.H.A, the fragile and crippled power management system of the K.E.S.C, the hour long traffic jams, the submerged underpasses and what not.

No I am not saying that it should not rain so as to keep the people of Karachi safe from different kinds of problems, I mean to criticize the poor and under development of the projects, like drainage, sewerage, electricity, telephones and the major roads of the city.

Pick up a newspaper after the day it has rained, the top headlines that meet your eyes will be “Most parts of the city without electricity for past 24 hours because of rain” “Rain cripples the fragile electricity distribution network of the K.E.S.C” or maybe this “3 people electrocuted after a mains line snapped” and definitely this “Major roads of the city totally submerged under water, residents leave their cars and walk home”. Hold me accountable if one of these doesn’t make it to the headlines in today’s paper.

A long time has passed; Karachi is still facing these issues. The new state of the art drainage system laid out by the D.H.A is not as efficient as it was claimed to be. Whenever it rains, people fear for their lives if they are stuck out somewhere, for gods sake, its just rain! Mega cities all across the world get more rainfall in a month what we get in a whole year, though no body there has ever complained of disconnected telephones, electricity failures and water pools.

The problem is of management, the mismanagement that has embraced this city for decades has left karachiites helpless whenever such a situation arises. Though it is commendable that most departments work to their full potential to provide relief to the people, but still lack of resources doesn’t let them work to their full capacity.

I hope that somebody will start learning from the experiences in the rain over the last decades, and will work to provide better services to the citizens of Karachi, so that when ever it rains, people take it as a blessing, not as the wrath of God.