Drenched in disaster: Pakistan’s monsoon season delivers scenes of calamity

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Flood water passing through the hill villages, cities offered swamps, the mourners gathered on fresh graves – when Pakistan’s monsoon season once again offers scenes of destruction, it also has bare preparations.

Experts say that without better construction and gutter care regulations, the annual rains that killed hundreds of people will continue in recent months.

Even Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif appeared to agree when he visited the flood of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last week, where more than 450 people were killed in land sliding.

“Natural disasters are God’s work, but we cannot ignore human mistakes,” he said.

“If we continue to control influence and corruption, neither the public nor the governments will be forgiven.”

Pakistan is one of the countries that are the highest threat to climate change, with limited resources of adaptation.

The Prime Minister visited the devastating hill villages, and beyond, residential areas are erected near the rivers, which “prevents natural storm drains”, which “prevents the natural storm drains”.

Business personality Fazal Khan now recognizes the “mistake” of building near the river.

His house in the Swat Valley was first destroyed by the 2010 flood and then about four million Pakistanis were affected in the sinking of 2022.

The 43 -year -old father said, “On August 15, once again, the flood water increased through the channel and entered our house.”

Man -made mistakes

Ever since it started in June, this year’s monsoon has killed close to 800 people and damaged more than 7,000 homes, which is expected to rain more during September.

Although South Asia’s seasonal monsoon brings rainfall, the farmers rely on, climate change is making this trend more wrong, unexpected and deadly throughout the region.

According to the devastation officials, by the middle of this month, Pakistan had already received 50 % more rainfall than last year, while in neighboring India, the flash floods and sudden storms have killed hundreds of people.

Extraction methods have also increased climate disasters, including cash stripes but minerals, wanting to meet the growing American and Chinese demand.

Former Minister, Rehman said that mining and logging have changed the natural waterfall.

“When a flood comes down, especially in the mountainous areas, a dense forest is often able to test water speed, scale and destiny, but in Pakistan, only five percent of forest coverage is now, which is the lowest in South Asia,” he said.

The urban infrastructure is also damaged.

A few days after the flow of villages in the north, the magic of rain in the south stopped Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi.

Coastal Magsetti – which is a home of more than 20 million people – I recorded 10 deaths last week, in which the victims were used or crushed by roofing.

A report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) states that brown water is not only the result of rain in the sinking streets but also “loaded drains, inadequate solid waste, poor infrastructure, encroachments, elite residential society …”

Published in the context of the deadly flood of 2020, this report is still true today.

‘Neglect’

According to the Commission, the problems are “naturally political” because different parties use building permits to promote their patronage network – often ignore the risks of construction over drainage canals.

In some areas, “the drain is so tight that when there is a sharp maize and it rains simultaneously, instead of flowing in the sea, it flows into the river,” urban planning expert Arif Hassan said in an interview after the 2022 flood.

According to the Rights Commission, in a large, rapid swelling city, both various officials, civilian and military, have failed to connect civilian planning.

As a result, the infrastructure that produces the infrastructure can solve a problem by creating others.

“Karachi is not being destroyed by rain, but for years of negligence,” said Taha Ahmed Khan, a legislator of the opposition in the Sindh Provincial Assembly.

“With illegal construction and encroachment on stormy water drains, along with poor roads … just damaged this crisis,” he added.

Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab says he will ask Islamabad every year to help provide financing for the restoration of drainage canals, to no avail.

“It is easy to suggest that the drainage capacity should be increased, but its price is so high that it may need to spend almost the entire national budget,” he told AFP.

Nevertheless, during the vote in the June budget, the opposition accused the city of spending only 10 % of the funds allocated for the massive development project.

The five -year plan designed with international donors was to eliminate the city’s monsoon by the end of 2024.

But almost a year later, there is no respite.