Downpour brings smiles to people of desert

HYDERABAD:

People of the sand-swept district of Tharparkar rejoiced the advent of monsoon, locally known as Sawan, which marks the end of the dry season and return of greenery to the desert.

Several areas of southern Sindh received the first monsoon showers on Monday.

The rainfall turned the weather pleasant, providing relief from the blistering heat. However, in the urban areas, the downpour meant power outages, overflowing sewers and flooded roads.

The early morning shower entailed a massive power breakdown with Hyderabad Electric Supply Company itself acknowledging suspension of the electric supply to 323 out of the total 562 11KV feeders in its jurisdiction.

The downpour began early in the morning.

The highest amount of rainfall was recorded in Islamkot taluka of Tharparkar district with 49mm followed by Hyderabad at 40mm. Mirpurkhas received 29 mm, Thatta 11mm and Badin 4mm.

The HESCO's spokesman informed that due to a technical fault in the transformer at 500KV grid station in Jamshoro district, the 132kV power supply system tripped.

The electric supply halted to 323 feeders in the morning and the restoration began in the afternoon. By 2pm the spokesman claimed that 198 out of 323 feeders were restored, still leaving another 125 feeders without electricity.

The residents of many areas of City and Latifabad talukas complained that the supply was not restored even after 10 to 11 hours of the breakdown. The outages also created a shortage of piped water supply in several towns.

The Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) claimed that many of its pumping stations in Hyderabad remained without power for six hours. The agency carried out drainage of the rainwater by powering the pumping stations with electricity generators.

The rain partially submerged some low-lying areas in Hyderabad but the water was timely drained from most of the main roads.

WASA claimed that despite the power supply failure on part of HESCO, the agency was able to control the situation.