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It’s been raining in Karachi for two days straight, and the city is once again paralysed. Floodwater has swallowed roads, leaving residents fearing another full-blown urban disaster. In the midst of this very real crisis, Mayor Murtaza Wahab posted a Facebook status that has now become the internet’s newest punchline.

“It’s still raining like crazy and the situation at Lyari Naddi is a major concern. It’s flowing like a river at this point in time,” he wrote.

Karachiites didn’t let that one slide.

For one, the Lyari “naddi” is the Lyari River and rivers do indeed flow like rivers. Social media quickly tore apart the mayor’s observation.

One exasperated user wrote, “Lyari naddi is flowing like a river because it is a river! Fix it, let it flow!”

Another added, “The mayor is so concerned because OMG the river has started to flow like a river!”

Others pointed out the redundancy more directly.

And then there were sarcastic parallels.

The bigger picture

As funny as the mayor’s gaffe is, the bigger picture isn’t. Karachi’s two rivers, Lyari and Malir, are seasonal rivers that once brought fresh water from the city’s outskirts down to the Arabian Sea. Over the decades, they’ve been encroached upon, blocked, and converted into open sewage drains. The floodplains that should have acted as natural buffers now host housing schemes and katchi abadis.

So when rain lashes Karachi, there’s nowhere for the water to go.

This isn’t just a Karachi problem either. Lahore’s Ravi River — also a river, for the record — has faced similar treatment. The Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project saw extensive construction along a 46km stretch of its banks. Earlier this season, entire communities lost billions in housing and businesses when the river reclaimed its path and floodwater swallowed what was never meant to be built there in the first place.

Karachi reacts

On social media, anger and frustration are pouring in alongside rainwater.

One user shared a clip from Teen Hatti, the bridge over the Lyari River, writing, “This is Lyari River at Teen Hatti. I’ve never seen the water level this high. It points to heavy rain spells in Karachi city’s West North West outskirts - Surjani, Gadap, Kathore.”

YouTuber Shehzad Ghias also chimed in.

Another highlighted the problem of encroachments.

Then there’s the long-standing grievance many Karachiites echo every monsoon. “Pakistan’s biggest taxpaying city, after just a few hours of rain, roads are drowned, traffic freezes, and hospitals become unreachable. Life halts. Decades of corruption & failed governance & it’s the people who keep paying the price.”

Meanwhile, updates from the Malir River, alongside the Malir Expressway, where a young man, identified as Ali Gul Mithani, drowned on Tuesday evening, show rising water levels.

The lesson is painfully obvious

Rivers are meant to flow. They are not sewage drains, they are not land for housing societies, and they are not nuisances to be boxed in with concrete. Every time governance fails to understand this basic principle of urban planning, it is the people who suffer, losing homes, businesses, and in too many cases, lives.