Rain Again
The rain that hit us today later in the day was massive - at least to the extent that I witnessed in the surroundings of Hasan Square, Gulshan and Johar. With the memories of the last rain lash still fresh, people were seen running around in anticipation of the second such wave but the speed of the nature was far more than those of the mortals on the ground. Within minutes, everything went back to a deep chaos.
Driving back to home, I noted that while the recently built newer main roads might have done better this time compared to last season, the tragedy was doubled in the inner alleys of residential areas. As the local government re-carpeted the roads and erected new mid-road islands, a number of changes were made in the structure of the roads. Most prominent among these were the elimination of frequent cuts on the islands that otherwise created numerous U turns that in turn created traffic jams. The lower number of such U turns made the traffic take longer runs but allowed it to run more smoothly.
However, todays rain exposed this new problem. In the absence of a proper drainage system in the residential area, the newly built roads and long islands that separate the two tracks without any cuts turned the areas into small pools.
As the electricity restored a few minutes ago, and I type this post off, I can watch people walking to their waists in the water accumulated in our lane. Another day, another mega-city issue!
Related posts:
When the sun shines, we’ll shine together
Told you I’ll be here forever
Said I’ll always be a friend
Took an oath I’ma stick it out till the end
Now that it’s raining more than ever
Know that we’ll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
x
Such a delima! The so-called Financial Hub, the so called “Revenue generating city” and the so called mother of poor(ghareeb ki ma), the city Karachi lacks BASIC infrastructure.
Last year and this year, we have seen some HEAVY rains that we had not seen for years in Karachi. Since it was not raining here and since NO government was Karachi friendly, basic structures were never built. Proper drainage systems are not at all available. There were areas in Clifton, Defence and Bath Island that had no storm water drainage system.
Cities are planned first and THEN you start building it. Here, we start living and building apartments and malls first and then we plan. OH MY GAWD!
I live in Gulistan-e-Johar. It’s a HELL to live in right now. Why? Because every major road is dug up and Cantonment Board Faisal won’t do anything about it. They want the city government to take care fo their shit and well CGDK IS doing the work now but why now? Why was it not taken care of before they alloted hundreds of plots for thousands of apartments? Had they not seen it? Did they not know that this place will soon be full of people who’d need water, power, roads and proper infrastructure so that they could move about places without having their cars damaged or without seeing an accident ever now and then?
This leaves a BIG question at our hands. Who is responsible for today’s problem and who will solve all these problems? What is going to happen to our ever growing city Karachi?
Gulistan Johar is the Worst Disputed AREA in the Metropolis Karachi - Cantonment Board Faisal, Gulshan Town & Civil Aviation Authority - They all want STAKE in it and yet no one wish to Do SPEND on it, so Live with it Dude,- :D
DHA is worstly planned when it comes to dealing with natural disasters. Whose fault is that?
situation in SITE industrial area was no different.. road from site police station all the way towards star mill and baig spinning and end at Makro mall was filled with waist high water within 15 mins of start of rain.. the sky turned black and within no time roads were filled with water.. and to add to the misery there was no ROAD underneath and vehicles were getting stuck in pits and ditches.. and they expect industries and exporter to do better without giving them basic amenities..
our slected prime minister short cut Aziz was also in town.. i personally didn’t got affected by his movements today but heard it on media that his movement caused severe traffic jams in some areas
i saw those huge billboards being dismantled for second time in last few months, last time they were dismantled and brought down on some tax issue and after bribing the MQM leadership they were all back in the air.. this time after causing lots of havoc and deaths,they’re again being pulled down…
yesterday rangers were pulled out from helping taffic police as they thought that things have eased abit.. but today they were redeployed after the rains..
irony is that all these rains were pre monsoon and real monsoon have yet to start…
and to think people (i.e. the government and municipality) would learn from their mistakes in the past few years and take improved precautionary measures this year by re-developing the drainage systems and such.. but clearly nothing of that sort seems to be happening.. when will all this change?
Man it was a mess. I reached north nazimabad from Airport in 5 hours by using the so called signal free corridor
few of those drains were built but they ended in existing drains which are already choked and that caused them to overflow at some places…
The situation is not pretty today. The flood water is making its way and the Gujar Nala has spilled! I think we had a good amount of rain last year and this year, we may surpass that! Nobody planned our city to be prepared for this kind of emergency. CDGK is doing a good job but I guess they need to continue working. The rains will only get worse!
For all I know, Gulistan-e-Johar comes under Cantt. Board FAISAL’s jurisdiction and they have not spent a single paisa on roads/infrastructure and neither are they willing to do anything about it. CDGK is doing the dirty work! Their approach is right. Without proper sewerage and water supply, any road built on the current roads would not have surived for more than 3 months. They are laying new pipes and sewerage system BUT, they should speed it up. It’s been a long time and their progress is too slow compared to what they achieved in other parts of the city!
We are not the only one affected:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6256288.stm
Fine, i get it. The sitaution is dismal. The rain has paralysed the momentum of karachi each of us are so used to. At the risk of being called the fool searching for the silver lining of things, I whole heartedly believe that its situations like these which make leave a mark on you. I have fond memories of making paper boats which eventually disintegrated in the murky rain waters on my street. What im trying to say is, lets stop complaining. Even bloody Newyork gets mucky and slimy when it snows. Granted that Karachi has abysmal infrastructural problems (and in no way am i comparing Newyork and Home-Karachi), but Monsoons are Monsoons… this is how we remember them. And for crying out loud… you think this is bad… check out Bombay. People are swimming to work.
What bullshit. How is this relevant to the topic at hand. Stop spammming us with your religious eccentricities. Religion is between you and your God, not you and your God and the Rain in Karachi debacle forum.
:)
:)
hmm Today’s rain was heavy !! as compared to the ones of the last week !
I dont know about the other areas ! but I was somewhat satisfied with the arrangements, the LIGHTS were ON during the whole time, ! at about 9:30 Short circuit or something similar occured on our street ! putting lights of various houses!
Now here is an interesting part, we went to the KESC complaint center for the complaint, although it was attended after three hours due to unavailability of Vans, what I got to see there was a massive damage that was done to the repair center during last week, file were torn, two to three computers were fired with bullet, and similar fate with rest of the office,
When the KESC van arrived , there were 3-4 Unit office boys with them ( I guess for the security ),
What I am trying to say here is that , even with shortage of Power, Supplies and Man power, KESC people are working, and we the people of Karachi are not letting them !!! so why would they work !!? Their life is more important to them then their job !!!
So the least we can do is let them work !!!!!! doon’t interrupt them !!
entitled-to-opinions the truth hurts we are being punished for the sins you and i are endulged in.
May Allah almighty have mercy on us.
What about the sins that people in west commit? Do they get punished? Dude, Allah helps those who help themselves!
I really feel disturbed by comments of you negative people & especially the Media which is working only to show more not for the people but to stay ahead of their competitors. Weshould acknowledge what development has been happening in last 2 to 3 years but you are more happy to be critical the ills of last 50 years cannot be solved in 2 years.
Shame on people who only know to be critical.
Optimism is key to success I support the city government & Mr. Mustafa Kamal for all his efforts give the man credit not because of his political affiliation but because of diligence & sheer love of karachi.
Go on Mr. Mustafa Kamal worthy citizens of Karachi will supports your effort.
heavy rain expected today and next 3 days, so be prepared, see weather.com it predict more heavy rains next few days.
Yes heavy rain expected see this link
http://jang.com.pk/jang/jul2007-daily/01-07-2007/index.html
Most of the politicians are illiterate and
these politicians are ruling for their own rather than pakistan. they are even doing it for up coming elections, rather than for our sake.
So, stop thinking like that they will ever care abt us.
At the time of writting this comment, clouds have started gathering, and im looking to enjoy another lash of rain [ as i am at home :D ]
May be , we KMBians could start up a welfare organization that can help the effected ppl or that can help our local societies grow up individually, rather than waiting for these politicians to do better things for us at rite time.
Rehan Ul HAq:
“Weshould acknowledge what development has been happening in last 2 to 3 years but you are more happy to be critical the ills of last 50 years cannot be solved in 2 years. ”
I have heared that liyari express way was a project to be done in 1992. Why this has become so late? just due to ur belvoed MQM.
The things which are being done 15 yrs late,are going to havea big impact on city. Moreover, Our BELOVED city nazim Mustafa Kamal was a typist at Nine Zero [90]. Am i rite???????????????? :)
So how can u expect some planned things from him or the city govt?
Things in Balochistan are pretty worst but it seems there is discrmination and people are not up like they were for earthquake 2005.
earthquake was just over within seconds and then full fledge relief work started and aid started flowing in.. whereas with rain and flood the conditions are difficult and real relief work can only start after water starts to recede..
Wasiq, where are you these days? I miss you as you were the only sane person on this site.
Sorry for the irrelevant message as there is no other way to contact our fellow readers.
MQM and its leadership loves giving unrealistic and funny statements.. “don’t pay June’s electricity bills”… today Prime Minister Shortcut Aziz said that you’d have to pay the bills otherwise KESC will shutdown and things would get worse..
OBI,it means you admit that you are also an insane?
does insane means “hating mqm”?
and “sane” means “being wid MQM”, no matter wat they do or wat they have done?
e.g.
hijacking karachi for last 12 yrs or so?
MQM ppl have really been brain dirtied [rather than brain washed]. They can do any thing for their so called Qaid , but dont give hell to their parents or elders.
Their sharabi and phattu , so called Qiad is not willing to come to karachi , instead living on “Bhatta”, which MQM ppl collect from different shops. I have firm news of this in my area.
Who has given MQM the right to collect money from the shop keepers? Y dont MQM “KarKuns” work themselves at the offices and shops and give the money to Qaid? Then i will see how much “Bhatta”, that phattu Qaid gets per month.
Any “Sane” person here?
Zeeshan Syed
Exactly the people in the west are being punished just like our selves certain parts in america u have huricanes 24/7 in the uk where i live the amount of floods we are having is quite un real.First of all may Allah give me the guidance and then all of the makind Ameen
I got stuck near Urdu Science college and that patch of university road became graveyard of suzukis. CDGK should take responsibility of all this mess and resign immediately. They have spent so much money on these roads and infrastructure and all their claims have bitten dust.
CDGK should take responsibility of all this mess and resign immediately
:D you are really funny
Somebody wrote few days back in comments
yaad kero gay tum is nazim ko
now we have more to keep him in our memory alive.
Here comes the rain again /////
Falling on my head like memories/////
I could use some rain here where I am . Rain in karachi smells
so good.So organic. I just took a deep breath thinking about it.Allah dont punish people Allah is amazingly merciful and loving. Dont be so cruel on yourself thinking these things.Time will change for the good.
I never said that ‘yaad kero gay tum is nazim ko’ and i think they are following the principle that ‘badnam agar hongay tau kya naam na hoga’
@kashif: I think he’s referring to Zeeshan Syed who made similar statment in some post. btw, I didn’t find your contact details on your website.
@Adnan: its info[at]chowrangi[dot]com :) - i am on gtalk [kashaziz]
M. Riaz, what good are you then? Surely with all the good deeds youve done, billboards in karachi shouldnt be falling. Be a doll and pray a little more, maybe then the wrath you speak of wont plague human civilization. Maybe the karachi government can employ you. Damn, all this while and YOU were the missing link. forgot employing you, you should do it pro bono, as your civic duty. (and for those of you who cant feel the almost tangible sarcasm, *note tone dripping with it*)
entitled-to-opinions
may be cos of my sins the people of karachi are being punished and i,m not being sarcastic
Met office predicting heavy downpour on 3rd and 4th july here in karachi with strong winds…
In the MQM dissidence fetches a higher price. As the slogan painted on many a Karachi high-rise (there’s one as soon as you leave the airport and get on to Sharea Faisal) puts it succinctly, “Quaid ka jo ghaddar hai, maut ka haqdar hai”. (He who betrays the leader is worthy of death.) The Mafia could not have put it better.
http://dawn.com/weekly/ayaz/ayaz.htm
@chorangi bhai, you are added.
@doctor: lagta hey kisi din tum bori me milo gey,kidding :>
” Mustafa Kamal was a typist at Nine Zero [90]. Am i rite???????????????? :) ”
Really i never knew this. Some one should verify this please. This is interesting. But frankly isn’t he doing better than the original PAAN WALA aka ALTAF ?
People may accept him more than Altaf, i guess.
LOL MB. People may accept him more than Altaf, i guess.
The day Altaf feels it, Mustafa Kamal is a dead man. :)
Hmmmm. Interesting
City Nazim’s reaction
Please read a very intersting column by Kashif Hafeez from following link
http://kashifhafeez.com/mazameen_large.php?path=2007-06-29&img=kh_articles/large/2007-06-29.gif
did someone just insult a paan wala by comparing him with Altaf? bhai sahab, paan wala mehnat se rozee kamata hai… hope you know the meaning of RIZQ-e-HALAL….
I didn’t want to post the following but since some ppl on this blog just want to report for the heck of it so I have changed my mind too.
Ref: http://www.dawn.com/2007/07/01/letted.htm#9
“MQM has not on any occasion whatsoever advised KESC consumers to refrain from paying their June electricity bills.”
Karachi’ite mesmerizing the US viewers..
Kashif Memon rocks!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fViV66t8pJw
ADNAN: Yup, that’s what I quoted in one of my comments earlier. It’s funny how you remember me saying that but do not remember that I was telling you guys a little story and that these very words came from someone else’ mouth. But that does not mean that I do not agree with it.
BitterTruth: I’ll ask you the same question when Benazir comes back or when Nawaz or worse MULLAS take over the country. You’ll see how much love these people have for our beloved city Karachi :D