Authorities seem to be comfortably sipping on their teas as conditions in the city further deteriorate
KARACHI: While countries near the equator eagerly wait for rain, considered as a blessing and good fortune in hot temperatures, it is the other way round in Karachi where the news of a rain spell is taken more as a warning rather than intimation from the meteorological department due to the incidents that occur and the aftermath that follows.
This is primarily due to the weak infrastructure of Karachi which exposes its true loop-holes during prolonged rain spells. Heaps of garbage engulfs the city, destroying the fragile civic infrastructure while the stakeholders and administration continue to blame each other for lack of funds and resources. The accumulation of water, in turn, destroys roads, enters homes, damaged vehicles and endangers power infrastructures and street lights, causing serious accidents. People who stay at home are not safe either. As the water enters homes in low-lying areas it results in electrocution from otherwise safe home electrical devices such as motors, water coolers and generators. The statements given by multiple authorities are sometimes absurd at best.
As the mayhem continues the authorities seem to be comfortably sipping on their teacups while conditions in the city go on deteriorating. When will the authorities wake from their blissful slumber? Conditions go on worsening in the biggest metropolis of Pakistan, so is growing insensitiveness of the authorities. Being the commercial and industrial hub, Karachi has been ignored for too long. No one knows where the whole thing is heading for. There are three tiers of government: federal, provincial and local. And all of them are acting as silent spectators. Let us see how long this state of affairs continues and what kind of record in bad governance the government establishes. Perhaps the record will stay unbroken for centuries.
Gulshan Naz
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2019.
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