Karachi (May 2024): The Commissioner Karachi Syed Hassan Naqvi summons all the relevant agencies of the city to set their directions to tackle the upcoming monsoon forecasts and urban flooding preparedness. He emphasised on them to immediately prepare emergency and contingency plans about utilising available resources, clear distribution of work and sharing responsibilities.
The meeting was attended by all Deputy Commissioners of the city, officials from Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Town Municipal Corporations (TMC), Karachi Water and Severage Board (KWSB), Traffic Police, Fire Brigade, Cantonments and other relevant agencies of the metropolitan.
Briefing the meeting about the predictions of upcoming monsoon, the Director General PDMA Syed Salman Shah said that although June is expected to receive a below to normal range of rainfall, and July may receive rainfall equivalent to the rainfall received in 2022. However, after mid July to late August Karachi may receive 100 percent extra rainfall than that of 2022. He quoted Meteorological department for forecasting relatively more rainfall than 2022.
He further told that there are a total of 198 low lines in the city where rain water usually gets accumulated. However out of 198, there are 29 critical points which needs immediate attention.
The Commissioner Karachi Syed Hassan Naqvi asked KMC officials whether they have prepared their emergency and contingency plans or brought any list of the critical low points of the city. The KMC officials failed to provide any contingency plans, and told the meeting that they were waiting for the tender process of hiring a contractor who would then make such plans. On this, the Commissioner Karachi directed them to submit the draft Contingency plan by tomorrow, and said that KMC should mobilize their machine and manpower urgently.
DG PDMA told the meeting that as per their previous experience out of 29 critical points, KMC could dewater from 11 points only, and PDMA had to dewater from the rest.
Regarding the complaints of open manhole covers and reported incidents, most of the TMC officials expressed their concerns on receipt of manhole covers below requirements from the KW&SB, which creates difficulties for the citizens. The KW&SB representatives claimed to provide 700 manhole covers to different TMCs during the past one month, however, such claims could not be corroborated by the TMC representatives.
The Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi directed all the officials of relevant agencies to prepare their emergency contingency plans with clearly stating their available and required machine and human resource, and share such plans with his office so that these may be compiled and shared with PDMA to tackle upcoming rainfall effectively.
He said that proper communication about the resource pooling, distribution of responsibilities are necessary to get the tasks done by the relevant agencies and hold accountability in case of any failure.
