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PUNJAB is in the grip of devastating floods with thousands of acres of productive land affected, habitats and infrastructure damaged. Around 200 people are estimated to have perished thus far. And there is no let up in the loss of livestock, an integral part of the village economy.
The mighty rivers combined are surging in southern Punjab, where the growing pressure at Trimmu headworks in Jhang district resulted in the decision to breach protective embankments, leading to the inundation of over 100 villages, causing yet more damage to crops and assets.
The floods are projected to enter Sindh within another 24 hours. While in Punjab the water overflowing the banks tends to return to the river bed, the situation in Sindh often becomes serious because the flood water turns the low-altitude area into a huge swamp.
Rescue and relief efforts are afoot with Pakistan Army troops bolstering operations. Relief agencies are doing their bit to rescue affected people to makeshift shelters and provide them with basic necessities including medical assistance. The task, however, is enormous, and one is at a loss to understand what we have learned from the devastating floods of 2010 in terms of the national state of preparedness.
While floods have been a recurring phenomenon since 1973, it has become evident over the past few years that these have now assumed a cyclical pattern. Exceptionally high floods in recent times have repeatedly exposed the inadequacies of our flood management strategy. The state of our protective infrastructure, such as embankments and spurs, raises many basic questions about their upkeep and maintenance.
At this crucial moment, we must address issues of long-term significance.
Unfortunately, the episodic nature of floods means that disaster preparedness barely registers on the political Richter scale of our rulers. Judicious spending of public money is more often than not absent, compounding the fact that there is already a paucity of funds where it comes to improving infrastructure in what is considered a low priority geographical area. Routine medium- and low-intensity floods are a boon for the people in the katcha (riverbed) area because flooding of this nature enables them to bring huge swathes of fertile, moist land under cultivation and reap a rich harvest. The downside of that, however, is that it contributes to the low priority given to such areas to save them from massive flooding.
According to reliable reports, Trimmu headworks on the Chenab in Jhang district, were under severe threat, because of which the banks had to be breached to save the barrage. The imminent threat to the headworks, however, was not on account of the exceptional nature of the floods alone, but because over the years hardly anything has been done to revamp these ageing structures. During the last six decades we could only remodel the Taunsa barrage whereas most other vital headworks require corrective engineering.
The severe damage to economic activity as a result of the floods has also highlighted the country’s poor resource management strategy for a water-starved economy. A well-calibrated strategy, on the other hand, could have minimised economic losses while at the same time set the pace and direction for conserving and storing surplus flow.
Our storage capacity is lagging far behind our needs. The issue warrants an emergency response backed by strong political commitment. However, the fear is that given the inert mindset so far on display on this critical issue, the country will continue to suffer as floods keep crossing the danger line.
In central Punjab, rain-fed nullahs have also caused major flooding over the years, largely because of the continuous encroachment obstructing the natural course of these torrents. We need to enforce land use regulations and provide alternate land in genuine cases while retrieving encroached stretches.
At this crucial moment, we must also look at the larger picture and address issues of long-term significance. Increasing deforestation, poor watershed management and the steady rise in the silt level of our limited reservoirs cry out for a well-integrated response on a sustainable basis. Matters regarding climate change also warrant a clear-headed policy response.
It is pertinent to point out that some of the largest glaciers outside the Arctic zone are in the Karakoram range with lengths often exceeding 60 kilometres. There are also many smaller glaciers that melt during the summer. Brazen human intrusion in the region has hastened the process of climate change, for melting glaciers give rise to gushing streams that lead to increased transpiration and hence, more monsoon rains.
The Indus basin, like the Ganges basin in the north-eastern parts of India and Bangladesh, poses a grim challenge which requires a plan of action at the regional level. After all, the three countries share a common eco system and instead of sporadic, ad hoc measures, we must put in place an institutional framework to grapple with what is essentially a trans-national issue.
The writer is a public policy analyst and a former federal secretary.
Published in Dawn, September 14th , 2014
