The province of Sindh in Pakistan was hit by devastating floods that wiped out livestock, farm fields, and almost all local infrastructure. Even today, the situation is extremely dire because the floodwaters have particularly hard hit upper Sindh’s right bank. Neighboring Baluchistan province’s water has come rushing down in torrents from Khuzdar in Baluchistan – down to taluka Qambar in Sindh.
Historical Perspective of the Flood Channels
The historical path of flood waters in Sindh typically enters the province via district Jhal Magsi in Baluchistan. However, when it rains excessively in Baluchistan, all the flood and rainwaters’ natural pathways pass through a few points at Jhal Magsi and proceed to enter Qambar and Shadadkot talukas or districts of Sindh province.
This is the historical route of the floodwaters in more normal circumstances. The flood protection embankments (or ‘bunds’ as they are known in local parlance) channel all that excess water beyond the flood protection band in the territorial jurisdiction of Zila or taluka Qambar. Along with that, they do the same for Taluka Mehr in district Dadu. Eventually, that water finally drains into the Manchar lake in Sindh. This is arguably the single largest natural freshwater lake in all of Pakistan. It is also one of the largest freshwater lakes in South Asia.
The Issue with Dadu District
Today, Dadu is still inundated with floodwaters because its tragedy is twofold. First, since Baluchistan’s floodwater emptied into Sindh’s Dadu district, the destruction took place in this district. This is because upper Sindh was hit by the extraordinarily heavy monsoon and the floodwater that entered Sindh via the above Khuzdar and Jhal Magsi route.
Add to that the widespread and torrential rains that lashed the arid zone of Sindh called the Khirther range. The rest of Sindh was only damaged due to the monsoon rains. However, the force of the impact was less, and there was comparatively less destruction. This is because these areas only had to contend with the very heavy monsoons only – instead of the rain and Baluchistan’s flood waters combined.
Unfortunately, this meant that upper Sindh was devastated by the floods from Baluchistan and the torrential rains that hit the entire Sindh province.
The flood water that entered Sindh from Baluchistan was coupled with the flood that was already present in Sindh. The combined volume of flood and rain waters was so great that it went clean over and above just about all the floods in recorded history in Sindh.
As a matter of fact, such flood waters are considered to be absolutely unprecedented in the history of Sindh as far back as records have been seen. The volume of all that flowing water was so high that it outrightly breached the major and minor flood protection bunds at the village of Sabhu Bolero. This meant that the flood ultimately hit and inundated the taluka and the city of Khairpur Nathan shah, both of which were in the raging water’s part. While at it, the flood also tried to essentially drown all of taluka Mehr up to even the city of Dadu itself.
To protect the city, the administration was forced to cut Manchar lake’s bunds in as many as three places. Had they not taken this supremely difficult decision, there was no chance of saving not just Mehr city but Dadu district’s eponymous city as well.
Ultimately, these cuts successfully saved all the major urbanized centers of the Dadu district. But, unfortunately, in the bund-breaking process, the area administration was forced to inundate millions upon millions of fertile lands. as well as kacha (arable but sparsely populated marshland) area that people had been using for many generations for the express purpose of growing their crops and thereby earning their livelihoods. As a result, their villages and schools and other necessary infrastructure were destroyed.
As per current estimates, more than a thousand villages have been devastated. Bus stops, infirmaries, hospitals, educational institutions, roads, and all the rest of the infrastructure that comprised the 21st century – everything is underwater like a strange dystopian version of the lost city of Atlantis.
Unfortunately, the irrigation department has failed to drain the affected millions of acres, despite the passage of so many months. Instead, years of ineptitude, complacency, and corruption have eaten into their funds. As a result, the area and district administration have precious little to spare when doing their primary job.
The people in the Dadu district still cannot live in their houses or even try to rebuild their homes or grow traditional wheat, barley, sesame seeds and corn crops. Dadu and its sister city Jacobabad are still close to being underwater to a large extent.
The district administration of Shikarpur was successful in draining the district despite insurmountable odds. However, the same cannot be said about Dadu district, where the devastation, even after 3 months, is still not being repaired, nor have the floodwaters been cleared.
Julien Harneis is the Resident UN Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan. He recently visited Qambar in Dadu and saw the terrible havoc of the floods up close and personal. It has now been over 3 months since the floods, and there is no sign of normalcy returning to these unfortunate lands.
Entire villages are still underwater and utterly flooded even though over a hundred days have passed. The district health center is still a pile of rubble. The schools are empty and flooded. Many small private houses that survived the initial flooding have completely collapsed because of the water in their foundations.
To get their lives back together, the residents of these hard-hit areas have to start farming their land. Only, since the land is underwater, they can’t do that.
Unfortunately, the world has all but forgotten their plight. The massive aid drives are over, and people worldwide have moved on to other issues and disasters – both natural and otherwise.
While some assistance is still trickling in the form of nutritional aid and other essentials, it is nowhere near enough for the number of affected people.
Women are particularly vulnerable due to a lack of nutrition. Add to that the near complete lack of access to female hygiene products. These two issues have combined to create a worst-case scenario for the girls and women of the affected communities.
Julien Harneis has urged the government, the NGOs and the UN itself to keep supporting these people until they can get back on their feet.
World Bank Involvement
The World Bank is aware of the plight of these unfortunate people and is also aware that the state doesn’t have the necessary resources to make a major difference. Keeping this in mind, they have announced a tranche of $1.692 billion. This amount will go towards financing five major projects to ensure sustainable support for the people living in flood-affected areas of Sindh Province, such as the people of Dadu.
Three projects support the rehabilitation and urgent housing reconstruction needs of the people, still forced to live out in the open for lack of other viable alternatives.
The funds will also go towards restoring crop production for the most vulnerable communities as the first step towards self-sufficiency.
The last two projects are geared towards the support of health services for mothers and their children.
“Sindh was the province worst affected by the 2022 floods. There was huge damage to the housing, health, and agriculture sectors, and people lost their livelihoods. Beyond the rehabilitation and reconstruction of damaged houses and infrastructure, our engagement in the flood response effort is an opportunity to strengthen resilience and reform institutions and governance structures”, said Nagy Benhassine, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.
The SFER Programme
At the same time, the Sindh Flood Emergency Rehabilitation Project (SFER) is putting in $500 million to help rehabilitate all of the damaged infrastructures. The funds will also provide short-term livelihood opportunities for the immediate assistance of the affected people. In addition, this amount will also be used to help strengthen and sustain the provincial government’s capacity to respond to other such disasters.
Since global warming is a reality and Pakistan is one of the countries most affected, such disasters will be predictably prevalent in the coming years. It is more than likely that they will continue to wreak havoc all over the country.
The FSER project will help restore and improve critical irrigation and flood protection infrastructure to ensure minimal damage in case of another catastrophic flooding incident.
This project will also finance water supply schemes, metalled roads, and other related infrastructure. Without the immediate restoration of such services, the long-term survival of the affected communities is at stake.
Conclusion
As of now, there are an estimated 2 million plus people who are still affected by the widespread devastation. Approximately 50 percent of these people are women, and they live in the most flood-affected areas and districts. These people will benefit the most from the restoration and reconstruction of critical infrastructure.
These people will benefit the most from the restoration and reconstruction of critical infrastructure. Today, the Shikarpur district has managed a near-total turnaround. The district administration has managed to clear the floodwaters, and slowly but surely, life is returning to normalcy. But, unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Dadu district, which had the same resources as Shikarpur. Therefore, it is a big question mark as to why exactly Dadu is flooded – while neighboring shikarpur is not.
All reconstruction projects must be resilient enough to survive further natural disasters since these floods, regardless of how terrible the devastation – was but a foretaste of things to come.
However, the resilience of Dadu’s infrastructure will be particularly tested because it has to contend with both Baluchistan’s floodwaters and the rains in Sindh.
Here the key question arises….. Would the Dadu administration be up to the task?
Written By: Jaffar Ali
