- Mayor of Karachi accuses intervention for the city’s flood.
- Climate expert emphasizes better data for improved prognosis.
- Urban Planning professor regrets the development of money.
The Federal Minister of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Musadik Malik, has said that some of the most powerful people in the country have built hotels right in the trails of rivers, making flooding even more destructive.
“The unfortunate part is that those who give them NOCs (no-objection certificates) are also among us,” he noted under Pakinomist News’ Naya Pakistan program, which hosted a far-reaching debate on climate change, flooding and governance errors.
Malik admitted that “Pakistan’s early warning system remains incomplete.”
He said the work began in 2017 with a plan to install 300 systems, but when he took office, only 12 were in place.
It is impossible to predict the weather with complete accuracy, he added, emphasizing that only forests can slow down the power of flooding water.
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab told the debate that planting trees was not enough; They needed care to survive.
He said that intervention on natural waterways was one of the main reasons behind the city’s flood and added, “Nature always regains its own paths.”
He also criticized Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and noted that it had predicted a fall in rainfall for August 19, but the opposite happened.
“For the past 90 years we have never seen so much rain in August,” he said.
Climate expert Dr. Imran Ahmed said better data could improve the prognosis.
He recalled that 27 locations in Karachi had been identified for recharge wells, which could help absorb storm water into the soil.
Meteorologist Ali Tauqeer Sheikh noted: “Pakistan is no longer facing only river river, but also the city’s floods, but still continues to treat trees like wood.”
Water Resources Specialist Muhammad Mehr Ali Shah warned that extreme weather events that were once rare now happened regularly.
“Pakistan has already lost the water corresponding to the storage capacity of the Tarbela and Mangla Dams.
“We can’t stop global warming, but we need to ensure that people do not live permanently in high risk zones,” he warned.
Urban planning professor Naausheen Anwar said that profit -driven development had overshadowed proper planning.
“Climate change is a challenge, but our wrong leadership is an equally big problem,” she said, pointing to serious weaknesses in the way Pakistan’s cities are building and controlling.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has recently announced a nationwide crash to limit the construction along rivers, streams and other natural waterways, as the death from weeks of flood rose to 788 by August 24.
Experts have for many years warned that uncontrolled riverbed mining, illegal logging and building structures on flood tracts interfer with fragile ecosystems, stifle drainage paths and make heavy rain and the resulting flooding far more destructive.
Last month, Gilgit-Baltistan authorities, a region with more than 13,000 glaciers, excluded the construction of new hotels near the lakes in an attempt to limit damage.
Since June 26, stormy rain and floods have beaten large parts of the country where Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is suffering from the worst losses.
The province has reported 469 deaths. Punjab has recorded 165, Sindh 54, Gilgit-Baltistan 45, Balochistan 24 and Azad Kashmir 23. Islamabad has reported eight deaths.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department has warned that the Monsun Tull Form, which is likely to last through September 10, could bring flooding on the same scale as the disaster in 2010.
Back then, the whole districts went down, while in 2022, heavy summer rain, which coincided with rapid melting glaciers, detached massive flash floods that submerged almost a third of the country.
More than 1,700 people lost their lives as a result, and injuries crossed $ 30 billion, according to official estimates.
Pakistan adds less than 1% to global greenhouse gases. Still, it sits among the countries that are most exposed to climate change and fallout.
