Even when I was 7 or 8, Karachi would be flooded every time it rained heavily (which was after every three or four years). I remember Mr. Jinnah saying "Clouds in Karachi have no water". The climate of Karachi, like its people, is very different from the climate in the rest of the country. This year, for instance, except for Karachi, the country has seen rains and floods since June. So we thought this would be one of those years in which Karachi would be dry (like the past two years). But yesterday the rains were the heaviest in years (up to 180 mm in some parts of the city).
In 1977, perhaps the heaviest rains (10 inches) had struck the city. I was then doing construction jobs in the SITE area, one of the many industrial districts in the city. It took me more than four hours to reach my house in Clifton (normally it was a journey of half an hour). Yesterday, I was stuck on the flooded roads for two hours instead of the 15 minutes it usually takes. Many people I know were also stranded for hours, one of them even went back to his office after three hours in the slow-moving traffic. He spent the night in his office and went home at seven in the morning today.
Many people ask why Karachi doesn't have a working drainage system, despite them paying heavy taxes. One reason is that the present drains can sustain rains of two inches maximum. Another reason of course is the pervasive corruption that is threatening to destroy the country.
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