What's new

Climate Change: Pakistan Requires Massive Assistance to Recover From Catastrophic Floods

RiazHaq

SENIOR MEMBER
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Messages
6,611
Reaction score
70
Country
Pakistan
Location
United States

Pakistan is dealing with the aftermath of the worst floods in the country's history. About 33 million people in two southern provinces are homeless. Sindh is inundated with 784% of normal rainfall so far this year. Balochistan has seen 522% of average rainfall. Both provinces suffered their worst ever heatwave prior to this unprecedented deluge. Nearly a million livestock have been lost, over two million acres of farmland is underwater and 90% of the crops in Sindh and Balochistan have been damaged. This is a massive humanitarian crisis. Pakistan can not deal with it alone.


Pakistan's population is about 2.6% of the world population. The nation contributes less than 1% of the global carbon emissions. It lacks the resources needed to deal with the consequences of this man-made disaster. The Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States was fueled mainly by fossil fuels such as coal and oil believed to be responsible for climate change.

Satellite Image of Shikarpur, Sindh Before/After Floods 2022. Source: NASA


It will take hundreds of millions of dollars to provide immediate relief to 33 million people, followed by tens of billions of dollars in assistance to rebuild the lives and livelihoods and the infrastructure destroyed by this catastrophe. Pakistan's gross capital formation is only 15% of its GDP. Among the world’s top 20 economies by population, only Egypt has a lower rate of gross capital formation than Pakistan, according to Bloomberg. It is time for the rich industrialized to help developing nations such as Pakistan to deal with the massive impact of climate change.


All Pakistanis and non-Pakistanis need to pitch in with donations to help finance immediate disaster relief activities. Beyond that, Pakistan will have to be helped by international experts to build disaster preparedness capacity. The new housing and infrastructure will have to be funded and built to ensure its resilience in future climate disasters which are likely to occur more often with greater intensity. There is an urgent need to prepare western and multilateral financial institutions to deal with such climate catastrophes in developing nations. Mechanisms also need to be put in place to provide and manage funding of these projects in a transparent manner.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

South Asia Investor Review

Groundwater Depletion in Pakistan

Pakistan Water Crisis: Facts and Myths

Pakistan Ramps Up Low-Carbon Sources of Electricity

Cycles of Drought and Floods in Pakistan

Pakistan at 75: Economic and Demographic Progress

Dust Bowl in Thar Desert Region

Dasht River in Balochistan

Bridge Collapse After Sudden Glacier Melt in Pakistan

Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel

PakAlumni Social Network



 
.
@RiazHaq why we did not use floods to increase our underground water level ? after all we have water shortage underground cant we make some projects to pump this water underground ? it seems this water is enough for our need of drinking water next 10 years .
 
. .
assit the wardi mafia and their minions zardaris and shareefs!

national secoraty issue toh nai ya bhi?
 
.
@RiazHaq why we did not use floods to increase our underground water level ? after all we have water shortage underground cant we make some projects to pump this water underground ? it seems this water is enough for our need of drinking water next 10 years .
You need to be ready for that, 90% of our politicians and people on top wont even know what you talking about
 
.
@Imran Khan

IK sb

why we did not use floods to increase our underground water level ?

@Olympus81 and I discussed this on another thread. There is a simple, ancient, indigenous and low cost solution. It is called a Farm pond or what Olympus sb calls a monkey cheek. Basically you set aside about 5-10% of your farmlands to construct 5-10 m deep ponds in lowest parts of the land, during periods of excess rainfall water automatically drains to those. Some of that water evaporates but the bulk of it is available for irrigation in the dry season- the rest percolates into the ground and recharges the aquifers.

Sadly, such solutions dont make money for the powers that be.

Regards
 
.
@Imran Khan

IK sb

why we did not use floods to increase our underground water level ?

@Olympus81 and I discussed this on another thread. There is a simple, ancient, indigenous and low cost solution. It is called a Farm pond or what Olympus sb calls a monkey cheek. Basically you set aside about 5-10% of your farmlands to construct 5-10 m deep ponds in lowest parts of the land, during periods of excess rainfall water automatically drains to those. Some of that water evaporates but the bulk of it is available for irrigation in the dry season- the rest percolates into the ground and recharges the aquifers.

Sadly, such solutions dont make money for the powers that be.

Regards
i mean to say cant we make deep wells in flood affected areas or near to river banks ? some 10000 wells all across pakistan whenever water lever rise it will go deep underground .

@Imran Khan

IK sb

why we did not use floods to increase our underground water level ?

@Olympus81 and I discussed this on another thread. There is a simple, ancient, indigenous and low cost solution. It is called a Farm pond or what Olympus sb calls a monkey cheek. Basically you set aside about 5-10% of your farmlands to construct 5-10 m deep ponds in lowest parts of the land, during periods of excess rainfall water automatically drains to those. Some of that water evaporates but the bulk of it is available for irrigation in the dry season- the rest percolates into the ground and recharges the aquifers.

Sadly, such solutions dont make money for the powers that be.

Regards
i mean to say cant we make deep wells in flood affected areas or near to river banks ? some 10000 wells all across pakistan whenever water lever rise it will go deep underground .
 
.
@Imran Khan

IK sb,

i mean to say cant we make deep wells in flood affected areas or near to river banks ?

I suppose we can. The problem is the cost keeps increasing as you dig deeper as the rock gets progressively harder in most places. A better solution is to have wider but shallower ponds. The rivers can be joined to such "monkey cheek ponds" as Olympus sb calls them by means of canals. It will serve the same purpose. Moreover, directly spraying canal water over soils causes salinity, this solution will avoid that as well. The top soil excavated can be used for replacing eroded and degraded soil elsewhere while deeper layers of soil can be used in the construction industry.

Regards

PS: On a personal note, sir, hopefully your pind is fine?
 
. .
@RiazHaq why we did not use floods to increase our underground water level ? after all we have water shortage underground cant we make some projects to pump this water underground ? it seems this water is enough for our need of drinking water next 10 years .


A significant amount of the flood water is being absorbed into the ground and the underground aquifers are being charged. Groundwater is visible in the NASA satellite images below:

NASA%20Groundwater%20Map%20August%202022.PNG
 
.
@RiazHaq

Brofessor sb,

This charging of aquifers will certainly help agri production going forward. However, a point to be noted is that farmers, especially small farmers have had their capital wiped out in this tragedy. Someone will have to fund the working capital needs- seeds, fertiliser etc for coming crops. Pak govt and the civil society and the world at large must come forward.

Regards
 
.
@RiazHaq

Brofessor sb,

This charging of aquifers will certainly help agri production going forward. However, a point to be noted is that farmers, especially small farmers have had their capital wiped out in this tragedy. Someone will have to fund the working capital needs- seeds, fertiliser etc for coming crops. Pak govt and the civil society and the world at large must come forward.

Regards
this is pakistan not USA sir here gov will not help
 
. .
Pakistan only needs to get rid of it's arch scoundrels and rascals; nothing else.
 
.
.

Latest posts

Country Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom