By Javed Rana
A few weeks ago, five friends including Riaz Anwar Bilal were roaming around in a dried river apparently with little chance of an instant flooding in sight in Sanaghai village in lower Kohistan district in the extreme northern region of Pakistan known for its scenic beauty embedded with zigzag ice-covered high mountains. It was all easy for Riaz along with his friends to move in the deserted river to enjoy their time together after they entered in it through uneven mud paths along the river bank. While some among them were still sitting in the car when one of them standing outside, frenetically banged down the door of the vehicle warning them to “ hurry up” to rush out to a safer location before gushing flood sweep them away.
Little did they know, that most of them had little chance to survive given the high speed of the flood which filled the river within minutes except for a moderately high rock upon which they managed to step up to survive for only few hours. Finally they were spotted by the helpless villagers from the bank of the river. When the flood swelled to the top of rock, one passerby on the nearby road bank, threw a long rope towards them, one of them tried to use it to reach to the edge of river. However, gushing flood waves took him over while others too were swept away after water fully swelled onto the rock they were standing on.
Rescue workers later on found 25 dead bodies including four friends while the fifth one was rescued. As many as 28 more have been missing since last month. All of them are feared to have met similar fate alone in Kohistan region. Hours long torrential rains coupled with the lightening and cloud burst are suspected to have caused glaciers to melt down which led to sweep away over a 100 houses and dozens of people in that part of Pakistan. This is the just tip of the iceberg about the biblical proportion of an unprecedented flood in Pakistan, one third of which was now underwater by mid September. The flood so far has killed over 1569 people, 555 among them were children while well over12,500 were injured in different flood related incidents. The flood has affected over 33 million people which make up 15 percent of this 220 million populated Muslim country in South Asia.
“We have not seen a humanitarian disaster of such epic proportion. More than 5,700 kilometers of metaled roads and 246 bridges have been severely damaged in the 81 calamity-hit regions cutting communication lines which has made relief and rescue a herculean challenge.”, said Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s Minister for Climate Change.
Well over one million houses have collapsed while more than one million domestic animals have also perished in the flood. As many as 135 cases of venomous snake bites have been reported. Many among them have died.
Pakistan received nearly 200 percent more rain than three decade average during this year’s monsoon which started in June and continues with unusual pattern of rains and floods. At least four Millions of acres of agricultural land is flooded and as result of which the country has lost the seasonal crops which would potentially lead to the shortage of food and high inflation in near future.
So has been country’s tourist industry which has suffered heavy financial losses with destruction of restaurants and hotel buildings together with entertainment resorts after climate change patterns triggered massive flood particularly in the northern region of the country.
Thousands of people are now suffering from malnutrition and water born diseases with little medical assistant to the majority of the flood hits areas particularly in southern Sindh province which is lower riparian region. Much of the flood of northwest of the country being in the upper riparian along with neighbouring Afghanistan end up in the Arabian sea before staying for months in vast plain agricultural land of Sindh province in the south.
Rescue operators report that Pakistan’s most of the flood affected population has yet to access relief goods and authorities have not been able to fully access them given the collapse of bridges and massive damages to the road infrastructure. As many as 6.4 people among them are in immediate need of essential food items and medical help. “More than three million children are in need of humanitarian assistance and at increased risk of suffering from waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the most severe flooding in Pakistan’s recent history,” said the UN agency dealing with children . So far dozens have died due to water born diseases.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has given its initial assessment saying that there are as many as 650,000 pregnant women in the flood affected areas. Nearly 100,000 among them are expected to deliver their babies within weeks and they are badly in need of maternal health facilities.
South Asia particularly Pakistan has been hit hard by an aggravated heatwave which has led to melting down of glaciers, aggressively warmed seas which consequently triggered heavy cycle of rains. The deadly combination of these factors precipitated flooding of an epic proportion, the scale of which is unprecedented in the 70 years long history of Pakistan. That is not all.
Residential and commercial structures inside deserted rivers and lack of mega dams to store floodwater and massive deforestation are yet another contributing factors behind the unprecedented flooding in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s metrology department has reported that alone this year Pakistan has seen triple than an average volume of glacial lake outbursts which were fed by glacier melt-downs, contributing to cause massive flooding. There are over 7,200 glaciers mostly in northwest of Pakistan, far more than anywhere in the world outside of the Antarctic and Arctic polar caps. A study last year found that the Himalayas mountain region in north of Pakistan, is losing ice at a rate that is at least 10 times higher than the average over past centuries.
Pakistan contributes less than one percent carbon emissions, according to European Union data. Nonetheless this South Asian country, is the eighth most vulnerable state to the climate crisis as per Global Climate Risk Index. Massive infrastructure development and industrialization in G8 countries are responsible for nearly 80 percent of carbon emission which is the leading source of climate change in the world. China, the United States, and India – make up for 50% of global CO2 emissions which originate from fossil fuels. Both China and India are the next door neghbours of Pakistan.
“I have seen many disasters in the world but I have never seen climate carnage on these scales.” said UN secretary general António Guterres who visited parts of flooded hit region recently. He believed the climate change driven by developing countries was the leading reason behind the catastrophe in Pakistan. Given the unprecedented scale of humanitarian crises and Pakistan being the victim of climate change, the UN Secretary General António Guterres has called for ‘debt swaps’ with MF and World Bank. This means instead of paying back to Western countries through donor agencies, Pakistan must be allowed to invest in climate resilience, investments in sustainable infrastructure, and green transition of their economies, he concluded.
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