Hyderabad’s electricity disappears with first drop of rain

District administration, traffic police unprepared to deal with downpour

HYDERABAD: The monsoon kicked off in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions on Friday and continued sporadically through Saturday. The light and heavy rainfall made the weather pleasant but caused predicaments for urban residents.

The Pakistan Meteorological (Met) department recorded the highest rainfall from Friday to Saturday evening in Tharparkar district's Mithi and Daheli talukas, which received a maximum of over 40 millimeters (mm) rainfall. Up to 34mm rain was recorded in Diplo, Tharparkar and 28mm in Nangarparkar and Kaloi talukas.



The Met office recorded 22mm rain in Thatta, 21mm in Sanghar, 20mm in Hyderabad and 11mm in Badin. Widespread rains and thunderstorms for Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions have been forecasted till tomorrow (Monday).

HESCO

Power breakdowns immediately followed the first drops of rain in all the districts. The outages, which the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) claims are done as a protective measure to prevent electrocution from the wet and fallen power cables, lasted from three to 18 hours in different areas.

Hesco Spokesperson Sadiq Kubar denied that power suspension continued anywhere beyond a few hours on Friday night. Citizens from many districts complained that the electric supply had been disrupted on Friday and not been restored till Saturday afternoon.



Residents of areas connected with at least six separate electric feeders in Hyderabad, which is powered by 80 feeders, complained about 17 to 18 hours-long power suspension, starting Friday night.

"An 11,000 kilovolt wire broke and fell on the road. Hesco’s team came to the area 14 hours after the electric supply went off to restore the line,” said Majeed Soomro, a resident of Qasimabad's locality, which is powered by the GM Shah Feeder.

The people also complained that Hesco's rain emergency helpline numbers were not being attended. The company has provided a landline and two mobile numbers for the emergency helpline. The spokesperson denied that the helpline numbers were not responding.

Hyderabad city

Although the city received moderate showers on Friday night, rainwater swamped many low-lying localities such as Latifabad and Qasimabad. Two railway underpasses connecting Latifabad and Hussainabad areas and Qasimabad also remained under knee-deep water for at least three hours after the rain, severely disrupting the movement of traffic. The roads under the flyovers also remained submerged with rainwater.



Although the Met department forecast rainfall several days before Friday, the district administration and the traffic police seemed unprepared to deal with the rain aftermath. As motorists struggled to wade through the rain and sewage water submerging the main roads partially or completely, the traffic police remained absent.

The electric supply in large parts of Hyderabad was suspended yet again on Saturday as it started to rain around 4pm.