Spell of Monsoon rains
Reactions of residents of twin cities
By: Yasir Ilyas
ISLAMABAD July 29: Rain is no doubt one of the greatest blessings of Allah, and twin cities are fully enjoying this blessing as the second spell of the monsoon rains has been showering continuously in the metropolitan for three days. Twin cities were in dire need of good rains in this season and they were expecting normal monsoon as El Nino phenomena shuttered. The water reservoirs of the twin cities went below the dead-level due to draught and no rains in the catchments areas of these reservoirs (Simly Dam, Rawal Dam and Khanpur Dam) but poor administration and weak performances of civic agencies also cause some problems after such heavy showers of rain for the residents of twin cities and particularly the ‘Katchi Abadis’ of the capital.
During a visit of different picnic spots, people seemed to be quite happy with rains after a long spate of heat in the twin cities. Hannan Durrani, a visitor in the Lake View Park said, “I have not found the capital so hot as it was before these rains, I used to consider that I was somewhere in Sibbi or Jacobabad rather than Islamabad, where mercury hardly exceeds 38 degree Celsius, but these rains have brought a pleasant change in the weather and I am quite happy.”
Tooba Ambreen, a university student said, “Though these monsoon rains are damaging certain parts of country badly, particularly the areas in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Balochistan and southern Punjab are affected on a large scale yet we were in need of such rains which could make position of our water reservoirs better, so administration should work efficiently to minimize the damages of the rain and help the people who are affected by the rain.”
“This is an ideal weather condition to have an outing with your wife, enjoy a hot and spicy pizza, fry ‘pakoras’ and ‘samosas’ and enjoy the tea.” These were the casual remarks of Imran Majeed along with his wife.
On the other hand there are a few people who are not very happy with the rains and they consider it a problematic matter for them.
Mohsin Ali is a student living in a private hostel. He said, “These rains make us work as the villagers who have to take precautionary measures before these rains to keep their houses safe. We also have to take such measures, because the water seeps through the roof of our room and we already have our lap-top ruined due to rains.”
Babar Abbasi, a resident of Rawalpindi said, “Rains are blessing but RDA (Rawalpindi Development Authority) is a curse. We have to face the after effects of rains in form of sewerage and stagnant water in streets which makes movement impossible.”
According to Abdul Aziz, a meteorologist current spell of rains which started on 26th of July will last up to July 30th. Then there will be a break for a week or so. But weather will remain pleasant. Temperature will range in mid 30 degree centigrade and we expect another spell of monsoon rains from August 4th, but hopefully not as intense as the current one. The Met. Department has recorded 157 millimeters of rain in Rawalpindi and 105 millimeters in Islamabad during current spell so far.
The residents of twin cities should plane their outing and weekends accordingly, those who love rains should wait for the next spell and those who find it not very good should be happy as they have a dry week ahead of them.