Rainfall in parts of Karachi on Thursday provided people the much-needed relief from the scorching heat. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS
Light to heavy showers on Thursday provided brief respite to the people of Sindh as the scorching weather turned pleasant.
Muhammad Tauseef, the chief meteorologist, anticipated light and moderate rainfall in most areas of Karachi and parts of Upper Sindh, including Mohenjo Daro, Larkana, Shikarpur and Sukkur, during the next two to three days. “The weather will remain partly cloudy and light rainfall is expected in upper Sindh on June 16 and 17.”
While some headed to the beach to enjoy the weather, those in the city had to face power outages as 75 feeders tripped in different parts of the city. The Karachi Electric Supply Company Spokesperson Adil Murtaza, however, said that the feeders tripped have been restored.
Water woes
With the unpaid sanitary workers on boycott and the overstaffed Water and Sanitation Agency in tatters, the post-rain de-watering exercise is also likely to be affected in Hyderabad.
More than 200 de-watering pumps, out of the 359 distributed among residents of the areas which went under water during the 2011 monsoon, have gone missing. The revelation was made at a preparatory meeting for the monsoon rains chaired by Commissioner Hyderabad division on Thursday.
The deputy commissioner Muhammad Nawaz Soho said that the then district administration, which was headed by DC Asif Memon, did not recover all the pumps. “We only have 156 pumps while 203 have been missing.”
The exact procurement cost of these pumps was not mentioned at the meeting. The DC could not be contacted till the filing of this report. However, the current market price of a 6-inch de-watering machine starts from Rs200,000.
The meeting also expressed concern over the incomplete drainage projects which crossed the stipulated time of construction. The managing director of WASA, Saleemuddin, was ordered to submit report of all the drainage schemes being built under Hyderabad Development Package (HDP) within 24 hours.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2013.
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