Monsoon spell continues in city

Various parts of the city hit by moderate showers

KARACHI:

Brief spells of heavy rain with strong winds lashed different areas of the city on Wednesday.

The localities included Orangi Town, Saddar, II Chandragar Road, MA Jinnah Road, Burns Road and surrounding areas. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) forecast hot and humid weather with chances of rain-thunderstorm over the next 24 hours.

The minimum and maximum temperatures were expected to range from 29 to 31 and 36 to 38 degree Centigrade, respectively, with 65 to 75 percent humidity over the next 24 hours.

Thunderstorm/rain qwew also likely to occur in isolated places in Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Shaheed Benazirabad and Sanghar districts, while hot and humid conditions would persist

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The PMD, in its weather warning on Wednesday, said monsoon currents would continue to penetrate into eastern Sindh. Under their influence, rain/wind/ thunderstorm, with a few moderate to heavy falls, were likely to occur in all districts of lower Sindh till July 16 and Central & Upper Sindh till July 17, 2021.

The persistent rain could create water logging in low lying areas of Karachi, Hyderabad, Badin, Thatta, Sukkur, Larkana, Dadu and Shaheed Benazirabad.

Leaves cancelled

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah chaired a rain emergency meeting and ordered the cancellation of leaves of all employees of the district administration, police, local bodies and other essential staff. He also directed the chief secretary to set up a rain emergency cell at his office for necessary coordination.

Provincial Disaster Management Association Director General Salman Shah told the meeting that the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued the outlook for monsoon 2021 (July to September), It was expected that rainfall would remain near to normal during the period.

He said normal rainfall of Pakistan during July to September was 140.8 mm. Flash flooding in hill torrents of Sindh could not be ruled out, the meeting was told. Due to extreme hydro-meteorological events over catchments, riverine floods may occur.

It was pointed out that above normal temperatures were likely to increase the rate of snowmelt in the northern areas, subsequently increasing the chances of base flow in the Upper Indus basin. The Met Office said monsoon currents continued to penetrate into Eastern Sindh.

Rehabilitation Minister Faraz Dero told the chief minister that the PDMA had started pre-monsoon preparations in February 2021 by forwarding the Monsoon Contingency Planning guidelines. He said that the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC) has been operationalised 24/7 to monitor the situation.

He added that the relief/rescue stock had been prepositioned at Sukkur, Jamshoro and Karachi warehouses. The minister assured a sufficient number of dewatering pumps had been placed at the disposal of district disaster management authorities.

The training of 37 master trainers from KMC, KW&SB, DMC South, DMC West, DMC Malir and District Council Karachi to handle the dewatering pumps had been completed. In addition, the training of 12 master trainers from district Central, Keamari and East are being carried out. The armed forces have also been provided adequate equipment to assist DDMAs during emergencies, he said.

Karachi Commissioner Naveed Shaikh, KMC administrator, Water Board MD Asadullah Khan and SSWMB MD Zubair Channa briefed Shah about the measures taken by their organisations to cope with the ongoing monsoon situation.

The CM was told that 43 nullas of KMC and 514 of DMCs have been cleaned so that rainwater could flow smoothly to the sea. All the choke points of the city have been identified and cleared. Three major nullas, Mahmoodabad, Gujjar and Korangi, have been cleared, except for a few locations where work was in progress. The CM directed the heads of local bodies and district administration to keep visiting their respective areas so that proper disposal of rainwater could be ensured. He directed the finance department to release necessary funds to local bodies and other institutions so they could meet rain emergency expenditures.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2021.