Can floods be far behind?
While tens of thousands of people affected by last year’s flood are still to be fully settled in Sindh, torrential rains have made 300,000 more in the lower part of the province homeless. What is unfolding is more of a man-made tragedy than a natural calamity. The rains that struck Sindh were fully in accordance with the schedule, neither early nor late. What is more, there were already reports of heavy rains in other provinces. The concerned departments, particularly the irrigation department, should meanwhile have made preparations for all sorts of eventualities. There was a need to strengthen and repair the sides of the huge LBOD carrying saline water to the sea and the several irrigation canals wherever needed. The breaches prove that if the measures were undertaken, they were simply inadequate. Water released from breaches has inundated entire union councils, destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of standing crops and displacing the population and animal stock in Badin and Tharparkar districts.
What one sees happening now is a failure to realise the scale of the calamity and to mobilise adequate resources for rescue and relief. This has led to thousands of people being stranded. The army and navy personnel are engaged in rescuing and shifting as many as they can to safe areas. The provincial chapter of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) which should have been in the forefront of the rescue work is simply nowhere in sight. The rehabilitation work is shoddy. That there is mismanagement was sufficiently indicated on Monday by the melee over the distribution of goods soon after PM Gilani departure leading to baton charge on the crowd causing injuries to some.
After the expansion of the provincial autonomy under the 18th amendment, provincial governments can no more hold the centre responsible for their administrative failures. Unless the emergency in Sindh is properly tackled, the government will have to pay the price in the next elections due after a year and a half. Ditto in the case of the Punjab government, if it fails to deal with the threat of the expected flood in Sutlej.
I wonder when was the last time the irrigation department reviewed the Irrigation System Design along with improvement
of cross-section of canals specially the embankments.Heavy fforestation along the river banks is an important factor we
fail to consider.
I wonder when was the last time the irrigation department reviewed the Irrigation System Design along with improvement
of cross-section of canals specially the embankments.Heavy forestation along the river banks is an important factor we
fail to consider.
Comments are closed.