KARACHI: Seventeen years ago, Muhammad Khalid made a decision he now regrets, as he sought to escape from the cramped confines of Pir Ilahi Buksh Colony in central Karachi by pooling his savings with his brother to buy a new residence in Saadi Town, a burgeoning housing society in Malir Cantonment.
The Rs3 million ($10,653) they spent on their small house was all they had, but they thought it was an investment in a safer, more spacious future.
That future was submerged under floodwaters just four years later in 2012 — and again this week when a rare episode of riverine flooding inundated their home.
“In 2012, when the flood struck, it felt like we were living on the bank of the Indus River,” said a weary Khalid, now 62, as he stood in a street still slick with mud two days after the waters receded.
The recent deluge, he said, has reopened old wounds.
