Picture shows the affects of rainfall in Hyderabad. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Although River Indus flows alongside Hyderabad’s huge stretch, alManzar provides the only riverside setting for the people. With the onset of monsoon a few days ago, the place began to receive tens of thousands of visitors, choking the bridge over the barrage and the two hotels by the riverside, every day.
“It took us 45 to 50 minutes to cross the bridge in our car,” said Bahzad Ali, a resident of Hyder Chowk area in Hyderabad.
Hafeez Mallah, who works at alManzar hotel, said that even though they have been making a sale bonanza thanks to an unusually high number of the visitors, their staff and capacity is far shorter. The district administration of Jamshoro has imposed Section 144 against swimming in the river but neither the government has taken measures to enforce the ban nor the people seem to be complying.
Heaviest rainfall in Hyd
Hyderabad received on Saturday the heaviest cloudburst of the monsoon season, with the meteorological office recording 112 millimetres (mm) in two hours. With a power breakdown, the deluge of rain swamped roads and streets, submerging up to two to three feet of dozens of the low-lying areas.
Hyderabad commissioner Qazi Shahid Pervez claimed that the Water and Sanitation Agency, assisted by the district administration, effectively drained the rainwater. "If the system hadn't worked, the whole district would have flooded," he said, addingthat the areas of City and Qasimabad talukas will be cleared by Saturday night.
Hyderabad Electric Supply Company spokesperson Sadiq Kubar claimed that only 30 out of 92 electric feeders in the district were shut down for 'safety'. But, he added, all besides three feeders in Latifabad taluka and two in Qasimabad taluka were restored.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2016.
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