
Why Karachi Floods - allthings
https://www.dawn.com/news/1578061
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hyder_m29
It's clear to everyone in Karachi that it has been neglected by the provincial
government lead by the People's Party of Pakistan (PPP). PPP is the most
corrupt entity in the country. At least other governments do 'some'
development while filling their coffers. PPP undoes even the development of
previous governments to fill their coffers. Karachi's institutions have been
filled with political appointees with little or no merit. Everyone appointed
to run the country is only interested in filling up their pockets. Even slight
rains that would be unnoticeable in any other part of the country fills up
sewerage lines leaking them out. This is not new. What's new is that this
years rains have been unprecedentent and even upscale areas such as DHA are
affected, which is why all the commotion in the media.

~~~
tegeek
Since early 1980s, Karachi city is not under PPP govt. So it really doesn't
matter how corrupt Pakistan Peoples Party is, Karachi has not been voting for
them for nearly 40 years now. It is always MQM with some coalition who runs
Karachi. Right now PPP has only 3 NA seats from Karachi.

~~~
hyder_m29
MQM and the Mayor is still waiting to receive a mandate from the provincial
government. All power lies with the PPP in Karachi.

~~~
tegeek
MQM and coalition was brought in power in 1983. Since then PPP has no mandate,
they have no power to run the city. There are no funds available to any PPP
representative in Karachi. All development or non-development projects run by
the City administration. It is always the winning parties who decide about
city development. How come a party which doesn't have any significant
representation in city administration for 40 years is responsible for its
development??? Karachi's city administration has been receiving one of the
largest funds than any other city in Pakistan.

~~~
baybal2
I find no merit in discussing on whom, PPP, or MQM, to throw the blame on for
Karachi situation. The result will largely be the same if you swap them. Both
Karachi (MQM's turf,) and rural Sindh (PPP's turf) are ran terribly bad.

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kamaal
As an Indian watching these events, it refreshes my memories of flooding in
Indian cities(Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore etc). Which are almost of the
same scale if not more or less.

I wonder if the entirety of the Indian subcontinent suffers from the same long
standing issues of governance, disdain for law, corruption and in general
total apathy towards one's surroundings.

As a native Bangalorean. I've seen the city shredded to literal garbage, there
are tall housing complexes in places where there were lakes, and there are
real estate developments in natural valleys. Existing lakes have been long
encroached upon, and turned into cesspools receiving sewage from nearby
apartments. These flats sell for premium rates as they are ironically called
'lakeview'.

Every few months a famous lake called Bellandur lake catches fire, due to
methane emissions. Also there is just unimaginable amount of dust and
pollution, to a point you can feel the dust in your mouth. Dengue outbreaks
are common here. What's shocking in all of this people continue to buy these
'lakeview' flats. Continue to buy properties in lands which are encroaching
lakes.

I remember during the Chennai floods, some one had posted how the velachery
lake had been transformed into a rectangle after years of encroachment, the
whole area was flooded.

This is above and beyond the fact that plastic littering, and garbage disposal
in general is so bad that it clogs the whatever little drains exist.

Didn't know that Pakistan hasn't changed all that much since partition. May be
some one from Pakistan can talk about how it is there.

~~~
eklavya
Oh man don't get me started on Bengaluru. My tier 2 hometown sees more
infrastructure activities than this silicon valley of India. People are just
apathetic docile don't cares here. How come with an enormous budget and a rich
state it's sooo bad? Doesn't matter who is in power here, same story all
around.

~~~
srean
From what I understand the GDP of Bangalore enriches the federal body more
than the state. The state gets money from center based on the population of
state as a whole. So the state politicians do not have much skin in the game
to try to keep Bangalore sustainable.

Would be happy to be corrected.

~~~
mangamadaiyan
I'd say the situation is even more twisted. This policy effectively motivates
the state politicians to keep things unsustainable in order for them to make
money (indirectly) off scarce resources in the city.

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HeXetic
I understand this is a fairly technical article but I really wish there were
photos of the drainage and sewage systems being talked about, particularly
with respect to the clogging and illegal infill/building, instead of just
pictures of Karachi's of flooded roads. It would really help to visualize just
how much of the planned/built flood control flows have been compromised by
corrupt development.

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brazzy
> Meanwhile, a solid waste recycling industry, mostly in the informal sector,
> developed in Karachi over the years. [...] The contractors organising this
> activity pay the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) staff to not pick up
> the garbage so that the picking can be made easier.

> solid waste has been used for reclaiming land from the sea for both low
> income and elite residential purposes. Such reclamation is, strictly
> speaking, illegal in both cases. Informal developers informally arrange for
> KMC trucks to deposit their solid waste on the mangrove marshes and hire KMC
> tractors to spread and compact it.

Whoa. That's some next level corruption. Where it actually starts to supply
infrastructure that should exist legally but apparently doesn't.

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baybal2
Cantonments need to be abolished, and stricken out from the law. It's a
colonial anachronism used int the past to shield British military from the
local jurisdiction.

Now they just add to complete jurisdictional—topological clusterf__k.

The same is for governments of other city's subdivisions.

The lion share of Karachi's troubles is from super unclear jurisdiction over
much of its function, with each player in local government throwing hot potato
problems to the next one in the chain.

~~~
sumedh
Some Indian cities have Cantonments, I used to live in one such city. The
roads in the cantonment were in better condition compared to the city roads
and cantonments areas are much cleaner and well maintained compared to the
city parts.

~~~
baybal2
In context of Pakistan, a cantonment is still is what is defined by the 1924
Cantonment Act, and not just a geographical connotation. As I understand, in
India, a place may well be called a cantonment for historical reasons only,
while being a regular town/city/district for administrative purposes.

And that law is defining it very, very poorly, and it is where the trouble
with them comes from. Per the Act, a cantonment is “any place … in which any
part of the regular forces or the regular air force of Pakistan is quartered …
or is required for the service of such forces…”

Now decide on the boundary of the “any place,” which has never been
historically defined, and delineations of jurisdictions with non cantoned off
area.

Some cantonments never had defined boundaries, and grew to size of cities.
Some, on other hand, began to envelop more and more of its host cities' area
as definitions of their boundaries were reinterpreted.

Another matter is whether garbage removal, or provision of other utilities in
a cantonment a duty of its own cantonal authority, or a region/county/city
hosting it?

People who wrote that law wrote it before even electricity was a thing, and
never though of such things.

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aleem
The problem, as with all things in Karachi, is systemic.

It results from lack of ownership which makes accountability hard (politicized
institutions with diverging agendas). During these rains, an entire township
(Naya Nazimabad) sank underwater and many areas are still waterlogged. This
township was built on top of a low-lying lake that was reclaimed. The approval
of such projects involves dozens of authorities, each of whom charges an
"expediency fees" and corruption is deep rooted within them. An officer who
comes in for a 2-4 year tenure on low government salaries is incentivized to
maximize his earnings during his short tenure.

The second is the lack of engineering involvement. The government sector
doesn't exactly attract the top talent at good salaries. The tenders on the
other hand are awarded based on nepotism and personal gain. There is a long
list of botched projects in the civil sector. None of the desalination and
water treatments plants are operational, in the entire city, for example. They
have not been for years now.

The sewerage infrastructure in many parts of the city, as exists right now, is
worse than the French sewers built in the 14th century[1]. These sewers are
open-top and become dumping grounds for garbage due to lack of a garbage
collection infrastructure. The encroachments around and above these sewers
fall victim to Tragedy of Commons[2]. The whole thing is a mess with no easy
solution and if this years' heavy rainfalls become a future trend, the
situation will be unsustainable. Many homes were waterlogged for days and
weeks with no power or connectivity (cell towers have around 24-48 hours of
standby power after which they went down).

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_sewers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_sewers)
[2]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons)

~~~
baybal2
What made it different this time is that chick housing in DHA, and Clifton got
flooded, and people living there can shout loud enough for the establishment
to care

Unless this, common people wouldn't be so happy seeing DHA residents swimming.

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game_the0ry
Remember - PK also has nuclear weapons, and they are not very careful with
them.[0]

As a Pakistani myself, I can't be more disappointed with my country of origin.

For the Pakistanis here - it's worth criticizing our home nation and elders,
otherwise it won't get any better. And I want it to get better.

[0] [https://www.wired.com/2011/11/pakistan-nukes-delivery-
vans/](https://www.wired.com/2011/11/pakistan-nukes-delivery-vans/)

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pythonbase
The systematic encroachment, lack of infrastructure development/ maintenance
and criminal negligence by the concerned authorities have turned Karachi into
an urban disaster. Every time it rains, Karachi sinks.

Here's a blog post from 2009, things have became worse now.

[http://www.chowrangi.pk/why-karachi-suffer-when-it-
rains.htm...](http://www.chowrangi.pk/why-karachi-suffer-when-it-rains.html)

