Grappling with the flood menace

Indeed, the floods Pakistan has experienced for two consecutive years may be part of larger phenomenon of global warming. Scientific data shows that nine out of the ten years of the last decade were the warmest since weather records began. Consequently, flood waters have been ravaging human habitations in different parts of the world with greater frequency and ferocity.
However, the menace is not something new to Pakistan. Recent years did bring a spell of respite, which could be part of a cyclic trend. But the danger has always been there. This country has seen heavy floods before due to heavy monsoon rains. Unfortunately, however, there is a deep rooted tendency among government policy planners and managers to think in terms of ad hoc solutions only; they avoid making long term plans to avert any eventuality. Unsurprisingly, therefore, even after moderate rains big cities like Karachi and Lahore are inundated, paralysing all activity. More to the point, after last year's devastating countrywide floods, nothing at all was done to avoid the present calamitous losses.
The problem calls for sound planning for the future. After the relief and rehabilitation phase is over, the government must undertake preventive measures. First of all, river/canal levees and embankments need to be built all along the flood prone areas. That is not a hugely expensive proposition for which the government should be looking towards outside donors for help.
According to the Disaster Management Authority, among the several remedial measures it had recommended following last year's deluge was raising canal embankments at a cost of mere Rs 48 million. Even if that was a conservative estimate, three or four times higher cost would still be far less than the losses the floods have caused in terms of damage to homes, crops and cattle as well as on rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts. No price, of course, can be put on lives that have perished in the calamity. Second, steps must also be taken to keep normal rainfalls from inflicting as much harm as they do in bigger cities.
Towards that end, concerned authorities must devise master plans to put in place proper drainage systems and attendant regulatory mechanisms, also removing encroachments and building structures that obstruct water flows to designated discharge areas. This must be done, without fear or favour. No exceptions ought to be granted. A lot can be learnt from the practices prevalent in high rainfall developed countries. Third, to deal with the dangers that the bigger issue of global warming poses our planners and policy managers must start formulating long term preventive strategy now. Hopefully, the President's resolve to treat the present calamity as a wakeup call will not fizzle out with the end of this rainy season.