Country's largest city has the highest number of billboards used for putting advertisements on. While it is a major source of income for city government, Railways, Civil Aviation Authority and cantonment boards, etc, their ever increasing number gives a strong impression that it is a society where buying and selling of consumer goods is considered very important due to a steady economic growth which has strongly manifested itself in major towns such as Karachi.
However, it seems, that the government and its agencies naively assumed that these huge structures of mettle and wood would never cause any harm to people and their properties. But the gale-force winds blew down several dozens of billboards, significantly contributing towards over-all destruction.
When it rains, Karachi presents a situation in which there is a lot of damage, destruction and confusion. Although it had not been raining hard all evening and night, the loss caused by the "pre-monsoon" showers was indeed enormous: 235 deaths due to one hour's downpour. The number of injured also ran in hundreds. It was a horrifying sight in most parts of the city: collapsed walls and roofs, uprooted trees and electricity poles.
Strong winds had dismantled billboards outside buildings or at the side of roads. Like ever, snapped live electricity wires played havoc in various parts of Karachi, claiming numerous lives. Rains have caused widespread human suffering with people of low-income neighbourhoods are unfortunately coming to a devastating end for no fault of theirs. In Gadap Town alone, for example, rains claimed 20 lives overnight. In other areas such as New Karachi, Landhi, Korangi, Lyari, things were no different.
Several roofs collapsed under the weight of thunderstorm as the roofs and walls were never strengthened to protect them from collapse. All corners of their mainly two-room houses bore cracks where the roofs had leaked. Most of their houses were roofed with substandard material. How could one bear to see the mournful look on their faces. They mourned for their loved ones whom they have lost due to rains.
They feel a deep sense of revulsion at civic authorities' conduct. It has upset them no end to know that nobody is reaching out to them to give them at least a feeling of emotional comfort when they are really sad and disappointed. They are trying to overcome their physical repugnance for them. The city government is required to announce a day of mourning for the victims.
The weather got worse during the day, but people were worse off even before due to rains as the evening showers accompanied by strong winds and thunderstorm had wreaked havoc across the city. What an irony if it rains only to add to people's woes who are already groaning about various problems such as frequent power outages, non-availability or water and sky-rocketing price hike of daily use items.
Like ever, rain water on roads caused severe traffic jams. There's always a lot of traffic at this time of day. Motorists were stuck for several hours. The government is trying to ease the sufferings of the dying. If the government measures avoid losses in coming days, that will be all to the good. There's no denying the fact that what happened on Saturday was all about the fury of elements or the way things happen in the physical world when it is not controlled by thoughtful.
But the government and its civic agencies in particular could have helped minimise the losses to an extent by taking the required pre-cautionary measures. For example, mushroom growth of huge billboards was never checked. The loss of a number of lives and injuries to people were due to the fact that strong winds felled scores of billboards.
The Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on home affairs announcing that cases would be registered against advertisement companies whose billboards caused deaths indicates the magnitude of this menace. Saturday's destruction was Nature's way of telling us to take all those precautionary and pre-emptive measures aimed at minimising tragic losses and human hardship.