Our Correspondent
Karachi
Intermittent monsoon rains continued to wreak havoc on the ill-maintained electricity and sewerage systems in Karachi, leaving at least nine more people dead on Tuesday, officials and rescue services said.
Most of the victims died due to electrocution, taking the death toll since the first spell of rain began on Monday morning in the metropolis to 17. At least seven other people were killed in other parts of Sindh due to rain-related incidents since the downpour started.
On Tuesday, six people sustained injuries in wall- and roof-collapse incidents in Jodia Bazaar and Gulshan-e-Maymar areas. A nine-year-old girl named Masooma was electrocuted in North Karachi’s Sector 5-3 while she was playing in water outside her house near an electric pole.
An individual named Bakht Azameen was brought dead to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre after being electrocuted in Hazara Colony. Atif, 19, died due to electrocution in Yusuf Goth and 12-year-old Aabir and 13-year-old Ahmed Umar died after suffering electric shock at a cricket ground in North Nazimabad’s Block L. A 30-year-old man, who could not be identified immediately, was electrocuted in Kharadar.
In Gulshan-e-Iqbal’s 13-D, a 22-year-old, Kamran, died when he touched an electric pole outside his home in Block 2. Akmal Khan, 13, died after suffering electric shock inside his home in Korangi’s Qayyumabad area early Tuesday. Meanwhile, Edhi lifeguards rescued three children who had fallen into the Lyari river at Teen Hatti. The accumulation of rainwater caused one track of the Karachi-Hyderabad M9 Motorway to be blocked completely.
As residents of some neighbourhoods complained that they had been facing power outages for more than 24 hours, a K-Electric spokesperson, Noor Afshan, said that the company had suspended power supply to feeders of some areas as a “precautionary measure”. These areas included Naurus Chowrangi, Habib Bank Chowrangi, Super Auto Market, Super Highway and Pipri.
She said the rain experienced by Karachi yesterday was “unprecedented” and so the utility was forced to take safety measures. Afshan said a major reason behind deaths caused by electrocution was the use of kunda connections. She maintained that power supply to most areas of the city had been restored.
The Sadoo and Lath dams overflowed after two days of rainfall and water entered different areas of Manghopir, Saadi Town and Superhighway. The Emergency Operations Centre said that the Pakistan Army was called in to assist with the rescue operation in the affected areas.The current spell of rain has paralysed day-to-day life in Karachi with at least 17 dead in different rain-related incidents. Major thoroughfares also remained inundated affecting traffic and commute.
Monsoon currents from Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal are penetrating upper and central parts of the country and are likely to intensify over southern parts during the next 24 hours, the PMD added. The highest level of rainfall, 123.7 millimetres, was recorded in Surjani Town, Saddar received 104 mm of rain, according to the Met office. According to the Director MET, the monsoon system will likely end on Wednesday and there was not much chance of rain in the first week of August.
The lack of the required drainage system and the existing rain nullahs being choked with millions of tons of garbage, along with shattered sewerage system has put the inhabitants, especially of low-lying and congested areas to a tough test. The roads and streets in the majority areas of the city are swamped with rain
