Rain-related incidents claim five lives

Intermittent rainfall continues in Karachi on Saturday, as the mercury goes down in the city, killing five people and injuring several others in various incidents on Saturday. The port city received its first rainfall of the winter season on Friday afternoon. Light rainfall continued intermittently in several areas of the metropolis since Friday.
The showers are expected to continue in the city till the Saturday night, met officials said.
Gutters have started overflowing. Main arteries and connected alleys are presenting a look of pools of stagnant water and streams. Garbage has overlaid on roads with the water.
People themselves put tree branches and big stones on the submerged roads to signify ditch or manhole ahead. Heavy traffic jams were also reported in different parts of the city during the showers.
Fragile and vulnerably delicate electricity feeders got tripped soon after sprinkles of water and remained so for many hours. Most of the 200 feeders that were tripped could not be restored as yet leaving the citizens frustrated.
Traders, who have to bear millions of rupee loss as water entered their shops, have announced to protest against Karachi Water & Sewerage Board.
The overall situation has raised question mark on arrangements and preparations of the administration of the metropolis to cope with rain emergency.
Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar has complained about the lack of coordination and support from local government bodies and other institutions. However, he vowed to continue working.
While, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah in a separate statement said he along the mayor Karachi are working together to address the issues of the city. The weather system is expected to generate more rain as well as snowfall over hills in most parts of the country till Wednesday, further intensifying winter.
Meanwhile, the Met department said the system would produce rain with snowfall over the hills at a number of places in Balochistan till Sunday.
Rain and snowfall over the hills are likely to start in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas from Saturday. The spell will persist till Wednesday.