The moon rains have not yet arrived, but the increasing humidity in the air is a sure sign that they are nearing. At the moment, all that is being awaited is their arrival. Already, there has been rainfall in the northern parts of the country, but it is only when the rainfall takes place in the Indus Plain, which basically constitute Punjab and Sindh, that the monsoon is considered to have arrived.
It should have arrived by the beginning of July, but is still to come. If that was proved wrong, it is to be hoped that the one about Karachi receiving more rain than usual might also be wrong, for the last two or three monsoons there have been disastrous. Apart from flooding, which had been heightened by encroachments on drainage nullahs and other channels, the menace of electrocutions had been added, causing a large number of deaths (39 were reported last year in Karachi upto August 10). It can be argued that some of the devastation was because of a federal-provincial rivalry between the PTI and PPP that is still there, but that should prevent neither from coordinating such efforts this year. In any case, there is no such dichotomy in KP or Punjab, where the PTI itself rules, or Balochistan, where an ally is in office, to explain last year’s tame surrender to the elements.
The delay will only be usefully if the government makes proper preparations. An additional danger this year is the coming of the monsoon during Eid-ul-Azha. This means that the cities will have unusual amounts of animal dung and offal in urban areas, which means that floodwaters are likely to be messier than usual. Preparations should have been made regardless of Eid, and the lack of preparation of recent years has made it seem that the present government simply lacks competence, for it surely cannot complain that it has not got fair warning. The signal has not yet come from the highest level, and no has it transmitted down the line, that the government takes the rains seriously. Without that signal, the assumption cannot be avoided that those in rarefied heights simply do not care.
