Daily Times

Sir: Floods take place every year. Keeping in view the disastrous situation there is still a lack of flood mitigation measures. Lack of political will in the central government results in the failure of local governments and communities in dealing with mitigation efforts. Institutions that deal with the consequences of disasters are still operating in the absence of institutional structuring and accountability even after five years of heavy floods.
Pakistan has suffered devastating floods, including the worst in its history in 2010 when catastrophic floods across the country killed many people. Pakistan is geographically located in a region that is adversely affected by climate change. According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Pakistan in 2012 was the third country affected most due to climate change. This can be seen in the form of excess and lack of water both. Kalabagh dam and Bhasha dam should be made but this is a long process. Whatever dams we have are not maintained or upgraded to be functional enough. We should learn some lessons from our neighbouring country, which has enough capacity to store water for 900 days. We have capacity to store only 30 days worth of water in our dams. Why do our politicians not think of making dams in their respective provinces so they can be utilised to create energy and storage for irrigation?
Why is our civil establishment behind in upgrading itself to the technology and techniques needed to handle climate change? Water managers need to be trained for long-term flood management and the political leadership should realise nothing will help us when drought will prevail everywhere in the country.
FATIMA MANSOOR
Rawalpindi