s I write this, Karachi has yet to receive the heaviest monsoon showers of the year. While various official outfits make tall claims about preparedness, past experience does not make us very hopeful. Even light rains expose the hollowness of some of these assertions. Substantial disruption was observed on Karachi roads during the evening drizzle of July 25. Roads in District East, especially Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Gulistan-i-Jauhar neighbourhoods, and District Central, including Federal B Area and Nazimabad, have been affected due to excavation for laying new gas pipelines and related works. Municipal councilors, chairmen of union committees and towns are concerned about the status of preparedness. Most of them complain about the debris and solid waste heaps that have deposited in major nullahs, especially in Karachi Central and West. Where repairs, desalting of drains and small-scale development have occurred, the quality of work remains suspect.

Nightmares from past rain episodes continue to haunt most residents. During the previous years, poor design and management of roads, drainage nullahs, intersections, underground sewers and sidewalks caused chaos and damage of unparallel limits. Spilling of drains and the absence of effective flow guides for rainwater, inundated many downtown streets, transit ways and low-lying lanes. Thousands of people could not reach homes and had to spend the night at their offices or other accessible locations. Hundreds of vehicles were left stranded on the streets, further restricting road utilisation. The mayhem exposed some grave short comings in planning, development and management of the megalopolis that houses more than eight percent of the national population.

Some key issues need a thorough review and response.

The absence of a mechanism for bulk drainage along major streets is an obvious factor in the problem. It is a common observation that prime corridors, including II Chundrigar Road, Shara-i-Faisal, Shaheed-i-Millat Road, Habib Ibrahim Rahimtoola Road (Karsaz Road), Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan Road and Shahrah-i-Pakistan, all convert into puddles of water whenever it rains in Karachi. It is not that these roads have no storm drains. The city is also blessed with more than a dozen natural drains (nullahs) that had carried rainwater into the sea. In the past, a reasonable environmental balance was created due to a rational separation of sewerage and rainwater.

As the city expanded, mostly in a haywire manner, many of the storm water drains were transformed into messy sewerage conduits. Sadly, even planned neighbourhoods were developed with their primary sewerage channels draining into storm drains. One can also find land grabbers and builders recklessly constructing structures on nullahs.

By irregular reclamation of nullah banks, the width of the water flow stream was periodically decreased. This created a perpetual problem, both for the usual flow of sewage and the rainwater during monsoons. On many occasions, it caused a serious threat to life and property of dwellers who resided in adjacent neighbourhoods.

At several locations in the city, multi-storeyed buildings have been illegally constructed on top of nullahs. In certain cases, these constructions render the maintenance of nullahs impossible. While ‘development’ work on some nullahs has been carried out, the connectivity of smaller drains into these nullahs has been greatly compromised in certain instances.

An ad hoc approach to urban development has also impacted drainage of rainwater. For a very long time, Karachi has been subject to urban development decisions that ensure profiteering by a few at the cost of the city’s larger population. The permission to construct high density-high rise structures on identified roads has negatively transformed major streets.

An increase in occupancy and change in the status of land should only be allowed after a comprehensive upgrade of infrastructure. The intensity of load on various components of infrastructure such as water supply, electricity, sanitation, drainage, transportation and parking space is sometimes not taken into consideration.

Spot commercialisation is now common in several parts of the city. Among other challenges, this process distorts rainwater drainage options for neighbourhoods. Overlapping jurisdictions also impede in facilitating rainwater drainage options. Corridors of movement passing through multiple jurisdictions are commonly affected. One finds most of these corridors completely inundated during rains as access to existing drains was severely obstructed during commercial development works.

A major challenge the city shall face in the wake of torrential rains is the ongoing development works. The discussion remains incomplete without including works on the Bus Rapid Transit Red Line construction along University Road and allied corridors. It is one of the major arteries of movement, where major neighbourhoods, educational institutions and healthcare facilities are located. Since multiple works are progressing on this major corridor of movement, it portrays a picture of chaos. In its plan and detailed designs, BRT Red Line has exclusive arrangements for rainwater harvesting and connected infrastructure. However, it will take some time to materialise.

At present, excavation has rendered movement along this corridor an extremely difficult task for the ordinary. How this corridor will fare during a torrential rain is anybody’s guess. Unprecedented hardship is already being faced by residents and visitors. Authorities will do well to complete alternative paths for facilitating pedestrian and vehicular movement during the monsoons. Flagging of danger spots through proper barriers and signage is the minimum local authorities can do to prevent accidents and loss of life.

The writer is an academic and researcher based in Karachi.