“Every drop of rain in Karachi is a reminder - not of nature’s fury, but of human neglect.”
As the monsoon clouds descended on Karachi in September 2025, the city steeled itself for an annual rite of chaos. In a matter of hours of heavy rain, major traffic arteries disappeared underwater and low-lying neighborhoods were inundated, and power outages spread in the city like wildfire. The sight was heartbreaking but hardly surprising. Decades of bad town planning, unbridled encroachments and lackluster infrastructure has turned natural rainfall into a man-made disaster.
Karachi is unlike other cities that flourish despite monsoons; its urban infrastructure has been designed to fail. Stormwater drains, originally created to channel rainwater safely into the sea, have been encroached upon by illegal construction and commercial development. Whole neighborhoods have been built on natural nullahs (waterways), reducing their ability to absorb rain. As a result, when torrential downpours deliver water to the ground in those areas, it has no place to go but into homes, onto roads and into underpasses. This was proved once again in 2025 when Rescue1122, Pakistan Army and Rangers were compelled to airlift over 350 residents stranded in Saadi Town, Saima Society, Nishtar Basti, Essa Nagri and Sohrab Goth during the night. Families crouched on roofs as water inundated their houses, cars were left abandoned in floodwaters and businesses ground to a halt. Even mega-projects like the Malir Expressway were dumped on riverbeds, curbing the capacity of the Malir River to carry rainwater. Instead of designing against it, the city designed around nature, and with each monsoon season, the price of that planning is laid bare.
Yet the drainage system is antiquated and overrun. Constructed to cope with barely forty millimeters of rain at a time, it gave way under the weight of the record downpour that hit in August 2025 ; when there was more than 160 millimeters (6.3 inches) in one day. Gushing waters also submerged complete neighbourhoods in areas like Gulshan, Saddar and North Karachi, while families were moved out from their homes along the overflowing Lyari and Malir rivers. The poorest parts of the city, many in low-lying floodplains along drainage and sewage canals, were hardest hit by the disaster, with lives lost to flash floods in Gadap Town and neighboring villages. More than a thousand people have died in rain and flood-related incidents across the country this year, but Karachi’s situation is particularly notable because its flooding is not some inevitability of nature, it is what predictable results of bad planning.
As the rains began to inundate Karachi in September 2025, the highest levels of government sprang into action. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued direct orders for the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to work hand in hand with the Sindh Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) to scale up relief and rescue operations, while praising the efforts of Rescue 1122, the Army, and Rangers for saving lives in Karachi’s worst-hit zones . He expressed sorrow over citizens lost in the Gadap stream tragedy and demanded urgent tracing of missing persons. Dozens of rescue teams were deployed throughout the night. According to a report, residents from low-lying areas such as Saadi Town, Saima Society, Nishtar Basti, Essa Nagri and Sohrab Goth were evacuated following directions by Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah . The Pakistan Army was called out to help rescue efforts as boats and machinery were sent to pull stranded vehicles and families from inundated homes.
And all the while there were reforms and relief on the docket too. The Sindh Cabinet approved a massive resettlement plan, allocating over Rs10 billion for families displaced by illegal encroachments along three major nullahs ; Gujjar, Orangi, and Mehmoodabad. Officials said that nearly 7,000 people had been affected and promised timely rehabilitation and relocation support
But the impact of the floods extends beyond waterlogged roads and damaged cars. Two silent killers come with flooding in Karachi: electrocution and open manholes. With every monsoon, live wires dip into floodwaters; shoddy-insulated connections snap and ‘kunda’ load amplifies the threat. This year was no different. As floodwaters bubbled up through city streets, several residents had been electrocuted in Gulshan and Saddar, their deaths blamed on broken poles and dangling power lines. In one unfortunate incident, K-Electric regretted a tragic loss to a family in Korangi after an underground cable was exposed as a result of illegal digging . But residents say such tragedies are not isolated incidents, but rather annual events that reveal a broken system. Yet rather than cutting off power in high-risk areas, the system frequently stays live, converting entire neighborhoods into electric death traps. The wiring should be insulated and the mechanism to shut down power should be fast, citizens have called for this for a long time, but the change is still happening very slowly, leaving families to play with their life by even just walking outside when it rains here.
In addition to this, there’s a second hidden danger beneath the water: open manholes. And then there are the sewer lines, whose covers workers would swivel off to help drain water more quickly during floods. But the floodwaters obscure them, turning these openings into hidden traps. Motorcyclists and even children walking home disappear down gullies, their bodies later yanked out of drains. Year after year, the tragedy repeats itself and hardly anything is done to safeguard or at least mark these hazards. In September 2025, the fear of slipping into secret drains was said to be worse than the flood itself for people travelling down Shahrah-e-Faisal. For a lot of Karachiites, the monsoon is not merely about braving water but enduring the dangers lurking under it.
And the painful truth about these tragedies is that they are avoidable. The people in Karachi aren’t electrocuted by rain but rather by failing electrical infrastructure. Manhole deaths are no act of God, but the slam-dunk result of shoddy city practices. Urban flooding may be compounded by climate change, but the devastation in Karachi is an immediate result of human negligence, poor planning and zero accountability.
There’s more to be done than the temporary patches we are provided. Encroachments into drain and river beds have to be cleared, natural waterways restored and building in flood-prone areas prohibited with strict zoning laws. Sewerage system and storm water tanks have to be kept separated or one should not flow into other during heavy rain. The utility should be spending money on insulated wiring, underground connections and quick shutoff procedures in high risk areas. Manholes should never be uncovered; warning fences and safety devices will have to become a necessity. More generally, Karachi needs a unified master plan where its various governing authorities operate under the same set of rules rather than at cross-purposes. Without these reforms, the city will continue to pay in property and lives.
The floods of 2025 ought not to be a dull measure of the disaster they represent but rather some kind of turning point. For Karachi, the price of neglect is no longer a question of inconvenience but in human lives. Electrocution victims, relatives grieving over loved ones drowned in open drains, and communities marooned even inside their homes are not just nature’s wrath. These are failures of planning, governance and decency.
And until that failure is resolved, Karachi will continue to flood ; not just with water, but under the accumulated lies of its own neglect.
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