The rains of monsoon season is
ever welcomed in Pakistani and other agricultural countries. Similarly Pakistani
nation was enjoying in the early weeks of raining, but there start coming in,
the news of heavy rains from different parts of the country and the level of
many dams reaching the danger level. This was the point from where the nation
start worrying about and postponed their recreation.
The flood, which struck the vast areas of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtoon Khwan and
lately Sindh also engulfed everything, including lands with crops, cattle in
thousands and thousands of numbers, habitats, and same numbers of precious
lives. The numbers of flood victims are likely to exceed the number of victims
of Indian Ocean tsunami 2004, Haiti earthquake 2010 and also South Asia
earthquake 2005 as reported by the United Nations.
According to Mr. Mustafa, who teaches at King’s College in London and has worked
on social development and environmental preservation projects in Pakistan, also
suggested that changes in weather patterns may force the country to rethink
fundamentally(basically/primarily) the way it manages the river that is its most
precious natural resource.
He noted that “Pakistan exists because of the Indus,” which makes fertile the
land in its flood plain. But, he added, “poor management” of the river for more
than a century seems to have made devastating floods more likely.
It is said that one cannot pin blame on the last six months or last year or
something, this is something that’s been going on for 150 years — and not just
in the Indus. It’s been happening in most major river valleys around the world,
where there’s a balance between protecting yourself from excess water in the
river and of course reaping the benefits of the flood plain, the fertile soil
that you get there, crops that you can grow there.
River Indus doesn’t have room to expand; it doesn’t have room to flow the way it
used to flow. We have controlled its pulses by walling it in. So when you wall
it in, and then you divert — out of 144 million acre-feet of water that gets
into the system, we annually divert about 106 million acre-feet of water — which
means that there’s just not enough flow in the main stem river on average to
carry the sediment (remains/deposit) load that it has, which it deposits, with
the result that the channel capacity is reduced significantly.
It is reported that 13.8 million have been affected by the devastating
(upsetting/destructive)floods of Pakistan.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) press release
said, "While not all may be in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, and
the severity of their needs has not yet been fully assessed, this is a higher
figure than those who were affected by the 2005 South Asia tsunami (five
million), the 2005 South Asia earthquake (three million), or the 2010 Haiti
earthquake (three million). The estimate of homes destroyed or seriously damaged
-- 290,000 -- is almost the same as those destroyed in Haiti."
The most immediate concern right now is the risk of water- and vector-borne(infective)
disease (such as diarrhea, malaria, and dengue fever), as huge swathes
(enfold/wrap) of the country remain underwater. Right now, more than 50,000
people are suffering from water- and hygiene-related infections like acute
diarrhea — which is easily treated under good conditions but potentially fatal
(lethal/deadly) during emergencies like this. There is an urgent need for clean
water and sanitation facilities, as well as soap and other hygiene supplies.
NGOs, Pakistan Forces and common people are responding to these needs, but the
resources currently available now only cover a fraction of what is required.