While you are reading this, probably drinking up your morning tea or soaking up the afternoon sun, people in the former capital city of Pakistan wade their way through knee deep water; their houses inundated with rain, their properties and cattle damaged, and most of their city, if not whole, submerged in water. Before the sky poured itself down last week, Karachi had roads that were dumped with garbage and a sewerage system that was nearly blocked. The current monsoon rains have been the most recent blow and have left Karachi devastated.
Let us talk about a city which could have and should have fared better.
Karachi, the capital of Sindh, is Pakistan’s biggest metropolitan city. Located on the coast of the Arabian Sea, Karachi was and remains Pakistan’s principal seaport and a major commercial and industrial center. From the bungalows in the rich-dominated colonies to the shores of Karachi Harbour, the city houses some of the oldest architectural designs dating back to the British Victorian Era such as the Merewether Clock Tower, Frere Hall, and the Quaid-e-Azam House Museum. The modern day building styles of proud monuments also stand tall and tell us that Karachi has been loved and adorned by the people who have come across it. Apart from its rich history and brilliant architecture, Karachi has always been a place bathed in diverse cultures and naturally, has a charm that cannot be ignored. It has long welcomed people by promising a decent, if not energetic, lifestyle. But as vibrant as it is, the question to ask ourselves is a simple one. Is Karachi keeping up with its joie de vivre (joy of living)? Alas, we cannot say yes to this. Karachi, the City of Lights, has long been tumbling into abyss and it is heartbreaking to write about it.
Karachi rose from an undeveloped, rough port to become a city which was a rising power, the magnificent capital of the newly born Pakistan. Karachi grew and thrived beyond its people’s dreams, both economically and culturally. Even when the capital was shifted to Islamabad in 1959, Karachi remained the business and industrial hub of Pakistan and was seen as a flourishing city.
But then the city was pushed into a sea of neglect and miseries. Large numbers of Muhajirs had migrated to Karachi after independence, and the crowd kept growing. People from different places with different religions and sects over populated Karachi and the city struggled to keep up with the tide. As a result of overpopulation, Karachi’s weakening infrastructure and its inability to keep up with the pressure gave it a lot of trouble in the form of political unrest, anti-government riots, increasing violence and crime, severity of lawlessness and lack of basic city services to most people.
Today, Karachi is still Pakistan’s biggest metropolitan city and the Frere Hall stands where it stood before. Karachi Harbour remains intact, and Karachiites still put aalos in their biryani but only the biryani is as good as before. Different regime changes including the current ‘tabdeeli’ years have brought no comforts for Karachi which has lost its fate to administrative mismanagement, neglect from the federal system, political parties fighting for their petty interests, high crime rates, unrepressed lawlessness, and water and electricity crises. Poor urban planning, bad sewerage systems, mounting heaps of trash, and increasing pollution levels are taking Karachi downhill.
Among all these dilemmas, the dumped garbage is perhaps the most dangerous threat to the people of Karachi. As per officials in 2019, the city had 250,000 tons of rubbish in residential areas. The daily domestic produce was 16000 tons, and while about 7000 to 8000 tons got disposed of, the rest stayed on the streets of Karachi, either dumped next to a school wall or a park. The increasingly large amount of rubbish is choking Karachi and is undoubtedly a great environmental hazard. We cannot be sure if the relative departments are taking measures to control the situation, because if they are, it’s certainly taking a long time to bear fruit.
Apart from the rubbish, Karachi’s troubles don’t seem to be getting anywhere near a viable solution. The rubbish is one thing, but record breaking, lashing monsoon rains are a completely different thing. As you read this, most Karachiites are sitting on the roofs of their houses, looking down on the rain water that has flooded their city. This year’s monsoon rain broke the record of 1984 by around 47mm. The heavy rain wreaked havoc; submerging vehicles, entering most buildings and houses and washing away properties. A rain emergency has been declared in the province with reports of more rain in the next couple of days. With a close to non-existent drainage system, it will most probably take Karachi a long time to get dry again.
It is about time someone took a step for Karachi, before it’s too late. Otherwise, in a few years’ time, we might be reading about a beautiful city, all gone wrong.
References:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1576390
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/705923-rains-sinks-karachi-s-90-year-old-record
https://www.dawn.com/news/1576488/what-is-karachis-problem
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/521379-karachi-where-garbage-is-piling-up
https://www.dawn.com/news/654449/karachi-the-past-is-another-city
https://www.britannica.com/place/Karachi
https://www.britannica.com/place/Karachi/History
https://scroll.in/article/812797/these-pictures-capture-more-than-2300-years-of-karachis-history
