In August 2019, heavy monsoon clouds broke over Karachi, a mega-city in southern Pakistan, flooding its narrow alleys and turning main roads into a soupy mess of garbage and sewage. The tangle of wires slung between electricity pylons turned into a death trap. At least 17 people died, some caught in flash floods, others electrocuted.A video showing waist-high water gushing down a wide avenue in a well-heeled area of the city was widely shared on social media. The rains in Karachi only lasted a couple of days but the devastation lasted weeks. For decades, Karachi has been home to multiple urban conflicts, with frequent gun battles between different ethnic groups, entire areas run by criminal gangs and alarmingly frequent terror attacks. At its worst point in 2012, the city saw around 15 murders every day but, since a brutal police and army-led crackdown intensified in 2014, the violence has been quelled - at least temporarily. Now, the deeper structural violence by shoddy infrastructure and poor planning are painfully evident. Karachi's violence and its poor infrastructure stem from the same root: the city's dizzyingly fast expansion.
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