SUKKUR: The entire city remained without electricity from 5am till late in the evening on Friday while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif along with Pakistan Peoples Party chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was on a visit to different rain and flooding-hit areas of the district.

Water and gas supplies to citizens in the city were also severely affected while telecommunication and Internet services kept suffering frequent disruption whole the day.

The almost total collapse of utility and communication services rendered the routine life and all business and commercial activities crippled on a day when it did not rain at all in or around the city.

When local officials of the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) were contacted to ascertain the reason for over 16 hours of breakdown, they claimed that a tree had fallen on the high-tension line and caused discontinuation of power supply to the city. They specified the site where, according to them, the incident had taken place but when some people went to the site, they found no such thing there.

The prolonged power breakdown rendered all water pumping stations in the city inoperative and caused suspension of water supply to consumers. People did not have potable water at homes and mosques for ablution even for Jumma prayers.

Torrential rains in the entire region for a couple of weeks have already paralysed the routine life with rainwater having accumulated on almost all roads and streets. Low-lying areas are still submerged with one to two feet high rainwater mixed with sewage. Drains have choked and people are finding it difficult to flush out water from their houses and shops.

Large groups of affected people have been holding demonstrations outside the offices of the Sukkur and Rohri municipalities for many days over their failure to drain out stagnant rainwater from roads, streets and lanes.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2022