Pakistan records its heaviest rainfall in a single spell since 1931. Flooding in Karachi, Pakistan’s financial capital, lead to the death of at least 23 people and has wrought chaos in the city.
Karachi has experienced days of torrential downpours and widespread flooding turning streets into rivers as the large volume of rainfall overloaded the city’s dilapidated and ill-maintained drainage systems.
The city’s main utility company failed to supply electricity across the city, almost immediately, as it reported its substations being flooded. The utility company made pre-emptive cuts in order to limit deaths due to electrocution. As of now, at least six people have died due to electrocutions.
Anwar, a resident in Karachi, in an interview with Aljazeera blamed the city’s institutions for the poor handling of the situation. Anwar alleged that Karachi has been undergone years of mismanagement and lack of planning and political contestation.
“These institutions of governance that are responsible for maintaining services, whether it is water, solid waste management, land, transportation or sewage, they are all totally bankrupt,” Anwar said.
“Various agencies have control over resources and management and there is no collaboration or coordination between them … Everyone is on their own,” he added.
On Monday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered respective authorities to construct a plan within a week to reform Karachi’s administrative systems.
However, experts claim Prime Minister Khan’s plans will not change anything untill the underlying political contestation and other revelant issues are not addressed in Karachi.
This year, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), 189 people were killed and thousands of homes were washed away in flooding across the country.