Looming threats: Even medium rainfall can unleash floods in Sindh, says PRF report

Warns that the flood could be more dangerous this year.

KARACHI:

Sindh is under threat of the fourth consecutive flood and if the torrential rains continue to hit parts of the province and the water level increases in the Indus River, several areas would be inundated and unprecedented damage could occur - leading the government to declare emergency in upper and lower areas of Sindh.

According to the recent report of the Pakistan Relief Foundation (PRF), threats of upper terrain and its total dispatch through Sindh has created vulnerability and raised major concerns in Katcha areas of the province.

Recent flooding has been sweeping rural and non planned bands in other parts of Pakistan. The showers are pressuring the Guddu Barrage while the situation developing in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have increased threats of the fourth consecutive flood in Sindh. “Previous heavy rains had created havoc in rural and urban areas of Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kashmore-Kandhkot, Sukkur, Khairpur Mirs, Sanghar, Umerkot and Mirpurkhas,” the report stated.

Haleem Adil Sheikh, the chairperson of the PRF, assumed that the government must have taken measures to avoid the fourth consecutive flooding in Pakistan, especially in Sindh. “The flood 2013 will be more dangerous than the previous ones,” he predicted.

Sheikh said that the flood water will not exceed beyond 600 thousand cusecs, adding that this will be called a medium flood in Sindh.  “Even normal rainfall is a visible threat to emergency as the previous floods have weakened the bands and precautionary measures are still lacking,” Sheikh said. “We have to take appropriate measures so that loss of life could be avoided.”

The three last floods in Sindh caused persistent damage to public and private infrastructure, displacing millions and causing losses of hundred billions of rupees. Earlier, the civil society and other officials had demanded the government to improve major infrastructures to prevent failures in the wake of extreme weather conditions.

The report suggests that emergency should also be declared in departments as this approach will enhance emergency initiatives. “It is essential to include the federal government to manage disasters and as per need, we should declare emergency in health, education, agriculture, irrigation, local government, social welfare, relief and rehabilitation, revenue and police departments to respond the disaster as one.”

He pointed out that the country should not forget its internal resilience to disasters. “At such times, we could have started looking for community support, national giving, national funds for disasters and national and provincial relief funds,” the report suggested.

Sheikh said that flood-affected people tried to snatch food items and other necessary items during relief work, adding that such behaviour frustrates volunteers and relief officials. “All rescue and relief operations should be coordinated with law-enforcement agencies for appropriate measures.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2013.