Did we learn any lessons from the floods?

Our country had a terrible disaster in the form of floods last year. More or less the whole country was affected. The total cost of national economic and other losses is estimated to be more than 28 billion dollars. About 33 million people were affected and the majority of them were displaced due to the destruction of their homes and property. According to UNICEF, millions of children fell victim to various diseases and epidemics.

The impact of the flood on the economy of Pakistan was profound. As the agriculture sector to tourism and even the communication system was disrupted. The effect of the food crisis which was being feared due to floods was seen last year as well and due to less cultivated area Pakistan may face a food crisis this year as well. Because every field of life has been directly or indirectly affected.

According to some experts, this flood is one of the main reasons for the current sinking economy of Pakistan. But the most worrying thing is that till now we have not learned any lesson from the past events and no concrete efforts have been made by the government to avoid this situation.

There are many factors behind floods and the main reason is climate change and global warming. There is no doubt that Pakistan is currently among the countries where climate change is directly affecting it and the abnormal increase and decrease in the duration of different seasons is enough to confirm this fact. But along with this, the negligence and carelessness of the government, the breakdown in the administrative structure, the lack of national unity and national responsibility are also among the major reasons. A report said that in the hilly areas that were most affected by the floods, the local people had built houses and commercial buildings on the river crossings, which caused huge financial losses and displaced people. I also had to relocate.

Till date no special planning has been done to avoid calamity like flood in Pakistan. By the way, there are many institutions that came into existence for the purpose of preventing a disaster or calamity, among them are the “National Disaster Management Authority” and its subsidiary institutions at the provincial level. This institution was founded to protect the country from irreparable losses in case of natural calamities. Therefore, its basic manifesto includes pre-preparedness and taking timely measures to avoid potential threats. Similarly, there are some institutions working with the aim of helping to formulate an effective flood prevention policy, such as “Federal Flood Commission Islamabad” and “Flood Forecasting Division Lahore” which is “Pakistan”. is a subsidiary of the ‘Meteorological Department’. But unfortunately, none of these institutions have been fully beneficial till date. And the main reason for this is that they are not fully functional.

To avoid floods and natural calamities, these institutions need to be developed on modern lines along with enabling them. Actions are also required on an emergency and permanent basis. Actions that should be taken on an emergency basis include activating the warning system, informing the people, obtaining permission from the relevant departments for any kind of construction, attention to the environment and especially to stop the indiscriminate deforestation. In addition to working together with international welfare organizations, while the most important of the permanent measures is to build more dams in Pakistan because if dams are built on a permanent basis in Pakistan, it can have good effects and it will Not only can we prevent loss of precious lives and property, but also meet our domestic and agricultural needs with stored water. Furthermore, permanent solutions include the construction of strong embankments or protective walls along rivers and the use of inland tunneling technology to prevent the spread of water.

In some respects we have to imitate other countries so that we can fight this monster better. Japan, Indonesia, Germany and many other countries are geographically located in places where there are always threats of floods, but these countries have protected themselves from their effects to a great extent. This is due to their better strategy and sense of duty. Bangladesh is also a country that is prone to floods, but many institutions are working well together, due to which the impact of floods on their economy is less visible. “Local Union Disaster Management Community” has been formed in Bangladesh which works at the grassroots level and the purpose of this community is to try to avoid various natural disasters as much as possible by taking timely measures. And in the event of a disaster or flood, recovery efforts are to be made as quickly as possible. In Pakistan too, the desired results can be achieved by forming such a committee at the local level.

It is the need of the hour that the prevailing models of these countries should be carefully studied and those models should be adopted which can be applied in the country. Efforts should be made in good faith to solve this problem as it has always been the misfortune of Pakistan that no serious effort has been made to deal with natural calamities under any regime. If we look at the current political situation, it seems that despite such widespread destruction of resources, no political party is ready to think that the current weather situation is also looking like a brick wall. It is not a good omen for the heat to start from the month of February itself. This year also we may face the same situation in summer as we did last year. If the intensity of heat remains the same, there are fears of more melting of glaciers. And it is also possible that the threat of floods will arise again. So we need to take such steps in advance so that there are no regrets later and in the event of a flood, the risk of loss is minimal. For a developing country like Pakistan, such natural calamities are very deadly and affect the economy to a great extent. It is obvious that complete protection from floods is not in human capacity but with proper planning this monster can be combated in a better way.

In the end, it is also worth mentioning that we have to change our thinking and attitudes and instead of that we consider natural calamities as destiny and weep over it and seek help from the world, rather we are Allah. Using the common sense given by the Almighty, take some practical steps by which we are least affected by this calamity.

Note: Express News and its policy do not necessarily agree with the views of this blogger.

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