Forever flooded

Facing those realities, planning for them, and then carrying over those plans is one of the greatest challenges

With heavy rains forecast across much of the country lasting possibly until August 12, the likelihood is that the current already catastrophic floods are going to get even worse. In Sindh, the situation is desperate. There are about 414,000 people living in the riverine areas that have been affected by floods, and that number will increase as flash floods progress downstream. The task facing the provincial government and the military and rescue services is gargantuan — and it is a task that is becoming an annual event as weather patterns change because of global warming and the severity of floods increases.

Tents, dry rations as well as cooked foods, medical supplies and solar lamps are all being provided and thus far there has been — reportedly — no loss of life. Be that as it may, the loss of livelihoods and homes, to say nothing of flocks and herds that have drowned, will take years to repair. The cycles of flood-related destruction are now cumulative, rolling into one another, with no recovery time between extreme events. Embankments were raised after the super floods of 2010 and these mostly seem to have held during the current emergency, but some hard realities are going to have to be faced by provincial and federal governments. One of the hardest of all is that there may be areas that are not going to recover in the foreseeable future, and no amount of mitigating work, raised embankments or even preparedness — can alter the fact that some populations are going to require a permanent relocation out of the riverine areas. Some parts of Sindh have never drained completely after the 2010 inundation; the land remains waterlogged and uninhabitable. Impossible to sustain human habitation. Facing those realities and planning for them, and then carrying over those plans between successive administrations, is one of the greatest challenges facing Pakistan. Climate change is no longer a distant idea in the minds of meteorologists worldwide, it is a galloping reality that is going to affect all the countries of the subcontinent, with particular stress being placed on Pakistan and Bangladesh. A threat that can no longer be ignored.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th,  2015.

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