For years, every time I'd drive from Qayyumabad to Sh-e-Faisal, I'd look left as I sped along the expressway and wonder about this abadi on the left. There is a thing that happens with me: stories chal ke ati hain. So in 2021, I found myself in that abadi. This is its story...

If you haven't heard of Manzoor Colony, don't worry, I won't judge you. It's been in the news because they're doing a massive demolition operation here. They need to widen a nullah that runs along it

This is the nullah before it goes into DHA. I took this photo yesterday, at KPT Flyover. Before I went one last time to double-check some facts with @SohailRabKhan who was working on the story with me...

NED has been working on Karachi's drains/nullahs. The CM asked them to. If we want to avoid flooding next year, we'll have to do something now. Here is the map of our major drains. You can see the Malir river in blue...

Here is a little puppy playing the garbage at Manzoor Colony. Ever wonder what happens to all this garbage? That is part of this story. We'll be putting it up in a bit...

While doing this story, I came across a 1993 KDA project with the World Bank -- this is what a box trunk for a nullah looks like.

Part of the joy of this reporting is finding maps like these which show the Malir River. See that dense cross hatch? That's Manzoor Colony. I found out the history of the nullah.

They've been slicing houses along the nullah to widen it. The NDMA, GoS, KMC, District East, FWO... everyone is involved. I was told the KMC couldn't afford the diesel for the dumper trucks and diggers... The Supreme Court had said in October that nullahs had to be cleaned

If you love old maps, if you love Karachi and you never want it to flood again, here is our small contribution to understanding something no one likes to talk about: nullahs
#Karachi @SaeedGhani1 @Lord_SMAZ @urc_karachi @BilalAGhaffar https://www.samaa.tv/news/2021/01/filthy-rich-a-karachi-sewer-operation-for-a-sick-city/

This map shows Manzoor Colony first appearing as the Malir River forked off into a small distributary. (City Press)

This is the map we created from the NEDUET and OPP material to clarify how much of this sewer system is connected. Manzoor Colony didn't flood. Neighbourhoods above Sh-e-Faisal did. But houses taken down in the poorer places. Why? Bc I guess we can't touch the rich?

Here is Arif Hasan poring over a map of an independent survey done by the URC and TTRC (with Fazal Noor of SSUET). They measured each house because it will matter for the compensation. Lyari Expressway case taught us lessons...