Jab Sailaab Ayeجب سیلاب آئے

Naseem Rehmat: A really strong flood came.

Salim Bibi: There was so much water gathered in the streets.

Cecilia Francis: Bhutto had declared a holiday on Friday.

Naseem Rehmat: I think it was in 1976. Yes, the whole city was flooded. At that time, we had single-storey houses with sheet rooftops.

Salim Bibi: Sheet rooftops.

Naseem Rehmat: The houses were affected so badly that the walls were damaged, and you could see the inside material of the walls. There were huge potholes in our street near the Catholic Church. The roads were so damaged that it became difficult even to reach the neighboring houses because of the water. All the roads in Karachi were blocked. It was a very severe storm.

Salim Bibi: Yes, there was so much water.

Naseem Rehmat: Thank God it was a holiday, otherwise it would have been extremely difficult. Especially the crossing road, which was completely blocked.

Victoria Hector: Yes, we got holidays from Friday until Saturday and Sunday.

Naseem Rehmat: The canal road beside our area, and the place in Manzoor Colony where there is now a superstore and large buildings, used to be like a lake in 1976 and again in 1984.

Cecilia Francis: Yes, it all used to become a lake.

Naseem Rehmat: Animals also started floating through the water.

Cecilia Francis: Containers and water tankers got stuck there, and some people screamed while others hid in the bushes.

Naseem Rehmat: Yes, the animals were crying loudly. You could hear them making sounds, and people’s belongings were also floating away.

Cecilia Francis: Two years ago—

Naseem Rehmat: Yes, two years ago the flood came very suddenly.

Cecilia Francis: The water entered with such force that our sofas, beds, and everything else drowned. Nothing like that had ever happened before. My husband came home through extremely high water.

Salim Bibi: Our belongings were also ruined. Water entered our house too.

Cecilia Francis: I said that if anyone wants to see the effects of the flood, they should come to my house. The walls, paint, and everything were destroyed and torn apart.

And you would not believe it, the water carried insects, dirt, and even snakes from who knows where. My mother-in-law said she had lost her purse, so I entered the flooded house to search for it. I also gathered my children’s belongings and kept them at my neighbor’s house.

At that time, I was preparing to leave for Punjab for a wedding, but my attaché case was badly damaged by the water, along with everything inside it. Our walls and rooftops were badly damaged.

Mabel Safdar: Your house is built very low, that is why.

Naseem Rehmat: Exactly. You had put sand outside your house.

Victoria Hector: My husband, Hector, was removing water from the small street, sometimes from one side and sometimes from another. It was a very difficult time.

Naseem Rehmat: Water entered your house as well?

Victoria Hector: Yes, in the old house water entered from both sides. Our house was also built low.

Cecilia Francis: Then we just sat and waited for the water to go away so we could clean the house.

Mabel Safdar: Thank God we have not experienced that again in the past two years.

Naseem Rehmat: Sometimes it took us two days just to remove the water from our houses.