Rain batters Sindh for fifth consecutive day

Crops destroyed, urban flooding in many districts of province

HYDERABAD:

The rainfall continued for the fifth consecutive day in many districts of Sindh with Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) recording up to 64 millimeter rain in the coastal district Thatta, which may also face cyclone, on Friday. Hyderabad, Tharparkar, Jacobabad, Larkana and Dadu received up to 42 mm, 22 mm, 20 mm, 13 mm and 8 mm, respectively, till 5.30pm on Friday.

The unremitting downpour has kept a large number of urban, semi-urban and rural parts of the province under several inches to over foot-high rainwater, once again exposing poor road engineering and drainage system. In the rural areas, thousands of earthen homes have reportedly caved in, either partially or completely. The government is yet to come up with its approximate count of the damaged homes. The roads even in the cities like Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Thatta have remained under rainwater. The main arterial roads in Hyderabad like Autobahn and Thandi Sarak were under water even on the fourth day of rain.

The Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) and the district administration claimed that they are pumping out rainwater through 118 pumping stations of Hyderabad Water and Sewerage Board Corporation round the clock. Yet, many main roads and scores of streets in the neighbourhoods remained under ankle deep water.

Meanwhile, the Divisional Commissioner Hyderabad Bilal Memon has issued a notification, warning of heavy rain in coastal districts including Thatta, Sujawal and Badin due to cyclone. He imposed section 144 in these three districts in view of the impending storm, prohibiting fishermen and tourists from entering the sea from August 30 t0l September 1.

The Commissioner also put the district administrations on high alert and asked them to take precautionary measures. The low-pressure system is currently developing 270 kilometers away from Karachi. It may entail heavy rain in Karachi, Thatta, Sujawal and Badin. Responding to a query, DC Hyderabad said "this particular spell was accompanied by a cyclonic system in which rainfall of around 188 mm was recorded in a single day in taluka Qasimabad [of Hyderabad]". He acknowledged that there are obviously issues of drainage capacity and of inadequate infrastructure, but in the ongoing spell "the rain was too much and beyond our existing drainage and sewerage capacity". According to him, the city's drainage system can manage between 50 mm to 60 mm rain.

The DC contended that the road conditions have nothing to do with the water accumulation. "If drains are poorly designed and don't have the capacity to collect rain water, it is the roads that suffer instead." He underlined the need of proper drainage and sewerage disposal infrastructure, preceding better roads.