2010 Pakistan floods

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2010 Pakistan floods

A NASA satellite image showing the Indus River at the time of floods

Duration: 26 July 2010-Present Damages: $43 billion[1] (estimated) Fatalities: 1,781+[2] Areas affected: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab,Sindh, Balochistan and GilgitBaltistan

The 2010 Pakistan floods began in July 2010 following heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions of Pakistan and affected the Indus Riverbasin. At one point, approximately one-fifth of Pakistan's total land area was underwater.[3][4][5]According to Pakistani government data the floods directly affected about 20 million people, mostly by destruction of property, livelihood and infrastructure, with a death toll of close to 2,000.[2] The number of individuals affected by the flooding exceeds the combined total of individuals affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the2010 Haiti earthquake.[6] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had initially asked for $460 million for emergency relief, noting that the flood was the worst disaster he had ever seen. Only 20% of the relief funds requested had been received as of 15 August 2010.[7] The U.N. had been concerned that aid was not arriving fast enough, while the World Health Organization reported that ten million people were forced to drink unsafe water.[8] The Pakistani economy has been harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and crops.[9] Structural damages have been estimated to

exceed 4 billion USD, and wheat crop damages have been estimated to be over 500 million USD.[10] Officials have estimated the total economic impact to be as much as 43 billion USD.[11][12]
Contents
[hide]

1 Causes 2 Flooding and impact

o o o

2.1 Floods 2.2 Heavy rainfalls recorded during the wet spell of July 2010 2.3 Aftermath

3 Potential long term effects

o o o o o

3.1 Food 3.2 Infrastructure 3.3 Taliban insurgency 3.4 Political effects 3.5 Economic effects

4 Relief efforts 5 Criticism of response

o o

5.1 Neglect of minorities 5.2 Inequality

6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit]Causes

US Army helicopter flies over a flood-affected area.

Current flooding is blamed on unprecedented monsoon rain.[13] The rainfall anomaly map published by NASA shows unusually intense monsoon rains attributed to La Nia.[14] On 21 June, the Pakistan Meteorological

Department cautioned that urban and flash flooding could occur from July to September in the north parts of the country.[15] The same department recorded above-average rainfall in the months of July and August 2010,[16] and monitored the flood wave progression.[17]Some of the discharge levels recorded are comparable to those seen during the floods of 1988, 1995, and 1997.[18] An article in the New Scientist[19] attributed the cause of the exceptional rainfall to "freezing" of thejet stream, a phenomenon that reportedly also caused unprecedented heat waves and wildfires in Russia as well as the 2007 United Kingdom floods.[20] In response to previous floods of the Indus River in 1973 and 1976, Pakistan created the Federal Flood Commission (FFC) in 1977. The FFC operates under Pakistan's Ministry of Water and Power. It is charged with executing flood control projects and protecting lives and property of Pakistanis from the impact of floods. Since its inception the FFC has received Rs 87.8 billion (about 900 million USD). FFC documents show numerous projects were initiated, funded and completed, however reports indicate little work has actually been done due to ineffective leadership and corruption.[21]

[edit]Flooding [edit]Floods

and impact

Satellite images of the upper Indus River valley comparing water-levels on 1 August 2009 (top) and 31 July 2010 (bottom)

Monsoon rains were forecasted to continue into early August and were described as the worst in this area in the last 80 years.[22] The Pakistan Meteorological Department reported that over 200 mm (7.88 inches) of rain fell over a 24-hour period in a number of places in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and more should be expected.[23] A record-breaking 274 mm (10.7 inches) of rain fell in Peshawar during 24 hours,[24] previously 187 mm (7.36 inches) of rain was recorded in April 2009.[25]So far 500,000 or more people have been displaced from their homes.[22] On 30 July,Manuel Bessler, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, stated that 36 districts were involved, and 950,000 people were affected,[26] although within a day, reports increased that number to as high as a million,[27] and by mid-August to nearly 20 million affected.[28] By mid-August, according to the governmental Federal Flood Commission (FFC), the floods had caused the deaths of at least 1,540 people, while 2,088 people had received injuries, 557,226 houses had been destroyed, and over 6 million people had been displaced.[21] One month later, the data had been updated to reveal 1,781 deaths, 2,966 people with injuries, and more than 1.89 million homes destroyed.[2] The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial minister of information, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, said "the infrastructure of this province was already destroyed by terrorism. Whatever was left was finished off by these floods." [29] He also called the floods "the worst calamity in our history."[30] Four million Pakistanis were left with food shortages.[31] The Karakoram Highway, which connects Pakistan with China, was closed after a bridge was destroyed. [32] The ongoing devastating floods in Pakistan will have a severe impact on an already vulnerable population, says the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In addition to all the other damages the floods have caused, floodwater have destroyed much of the health care infrastructure in the worst-affected areas, leaving inhabitants especially vulnerable to water-borne disease.[33] In Sindh, the Indus River burst its banks nearSukkur on 8 August, submerging the village of Mor Khan Jatoi.[31] There is also an absence of law and order, mainly in Sindh. Looters have been taking advantage of the floods by ransacking abandoned homes using boats.[34]

Affected areas as of August 26, 2010

In early August, the heaviest flooding moved southward along the Indus River from severely-affected northern regions toward westernPunjab, where at least 1,400,000 acres (570,000 ha) of cropland were destroyed,[31] and the southern province of Sindh.[35] The affected crops included cotton, sugarcane, rice, pulses, tobaccoand animal fodder. Floodwaters and rain destroyed 700,000 acres (3,000 km2) of cotton, 200,000 acres (800 km2) acres each of rice and cane, 500,000 tonnes of wheat and 300,000 acres (1,000 km2) of animal fodder.[36][37] According to the Pakistan Cotton GinnersAssociation, the floods destroyed 2 million bales of cotton, which led to an increase in futures of the commodity in international market.[38][39] 170,000 citizens (or 70% of the population) of the historic Sindh town of Thatta fled advancing flood waters on 27 August 2010.[40] By mid-September the floods generally had began to recede, although in some areas, such as Sindh, new floods were reported; the majority of the displaced persons had not been able to return home. [2]