The monsoon season this year has been quite the worst that Karachi has seen over the last few years. It has also served as a litmus test for the city’s institutions and its leadership and tested their preparedness and ability to deal with any sort of crisis. The recent rain spell underlined how unprepared, we, as a city are and clearly, little or no investment has been made in our road networks and drainage systems. Much of the city was flooded, with water entering houses and vehicles broken down. The massive pot-holes and ditches on the road after the water receded show in one glance the quality of our road infrastructure.
The only institution that performed relatively better compared to previous years was Karachi Electric which somehow managed to ensure that most of Karachi remained energised despite the lashing rain. Whether this is an outcome of further investment in their infrastructure or better utilisation of their maintenance teams, as a citizen of Karachi, I am truly pleased with their performance and strongly urge them to continue in the direction that they are going.
We can see globally that extreme weather events are becoming a norm and our institutions need to prepare themselves for the reality of intense heat-waves and relentless rains. There can be no other alternative. So, my earnest plea to the city’s administration is that we should learn from this experience, see where we went wrong and what we can improve so that we can avoid these problems next time around.
M UMAIR QAZI
Karachi