A recurring crisis
The monsoon season this year has been relatively lenient given the low frequency and intensity of showers across the country. But the inevitability of deaths during our rain season still exists. Around six people died across Punjab yesterday in rain related incidents when roofs of different houses collapsed. Two people reportedly died from drowning in Baluchistan as well.
Governments however remain as unprepared as they would be in case of more severe weather that can occur during the latter part of the season in September. That was the case in 2014 due to rain related flash flooding and landslides with 84 dead not to mention the year before when a total of 178 people were killed by monsoon flooding.
A less tragic consequence of these annual rains is the inconvenience and damage to property and vehicles that is caused. Urban cities like Lahore and Karachi are still unable to cope with the effects of heavy rainfall due to an inadequate drainage infrastructure. Each year roads are flooded that not only makes it hard to commute but can cause irreparable water damage to their vehicles.
One would assume that at least the more recently constructed roads and underpasses would be fitted with better rainwater drains but pictures of a car being pulled out of a completely deluged underpass in Mianwali, Punjab will make you think differently. Luckily the passengers escaped.
If this is the condition within the better developed cities with bigger development budgets then it doesn’t take a lot to imagine what rural areas must go through where much less or absolutely nothing is being spent on the small things like drainage system or road upkeep.
One cause of this is the lack of control over money local governments actually have. The local bodies’ elections were supposed to be followed by devolution of government to district governments but that has hardly happened.
Money and decision making is still controlled by the Chief Ministers’ offices and spent on high visibility projects in main cities. They are too detached from the problems caused by rain and hence do very little every year to address them year after year.
