Pakistan has suffered a cumulative financial loss of more than US $38.165 billion due to floods during the past 68 years, but a comprehensive flood protection plan is yet to be formulated. According to a recent report of Federal Flood Commission, around 12,177 people have lost their lives, some 197,230 villages damaged/ destroyed and an area more than 616,598 Sq km affected due to 23 major flood events so far.
The report says Pakistan has faced consecutive flood events during the past six years: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 due to global warming and climate change, while a cumulative financial loss stands at around US $38.165 billion. All these economic losses have, however, failed to move the federal and provincial governments to agree on a ten-year flood protection plan to save lives and property of the citizens.
The federal government planned to spend Rs 177.61 billion on different structured and non-structured measures to implement the ten-year plan, but it is yet to be approved by Council of Common Interests (CCI). The plan was envisaged to be implemented from 2015 to 2025.
According to a report, prepared by the US-based World Resources Institute think-tank and four Dutch research groups, it is estimated that people being affected by the river-floods in Pakistan could reach up to 2.7 million by 2030. Currently, an estimated 715,000 people in Pakistan are affected by floods every year. In terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) being affected by floods, the report says that annual loss to GDP due to river flooding amounts to 0.98 percent of the country's total GDP which translates into $1.7 billion.
Federal Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid said that the ten-year flood protection plan is on the agenda of the CCI meeting and this would be implemented with the help of all the provincial governments. He said the provincial governments have made separate allocations in their respective budgets for protection of floods and other natural calamities while the federal government is helping them to save lives and infrastructure.
An official of Punjab Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) claimed that Rs 1.557 billion has been allocated for relief and rescue in 2016-17 budget, but he failed to provide details about the allocation. Director General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PDMA Amir Afaq said the allocation for flood protection plans in the KP budget was Rs 1 billion in 2015-16 and the same amount has been allocated in 2016-17 budget as well. He acknowledged that the amount is not sufficient to deal with the recurrent natural disasters in the province.
Afaq said the Provincial Disaster Management Authority-KP has prepared a contingency plan to deal with the floods and in co-ordination with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is actively pursuing a proactive approach to disaster management. Director General KP PDMA also said that meetings of relevant departments are being held on regular basis on overall preparedness for the floods.
He said the PDMA has declared nine districts including Peshawar, Nowshera, Charrsada, DI Khan, Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Dir Upper and Dir Lower as most vulnerable and additional funds are being diverted to these districts. "We have acquired relief goods of Rs 110 million, which will be distributed to the affected districts at the time of emergency, " he added.
The Balochistan government has allocated Rs 3.06 billion for relief and rescue activities during the natural calamities, but it is unclear as to how the funds would be made available to provincial PDMA in the event of a natural calamity. Ajay Kumar Sewani, Assistant Director (Operations) at PDMA-Sindh told Business Recorder that the provincial government has allocated around Rs 1.5 billion for flood protection and have made all necessary preparations to deal with any natural calamity.
He said that de-watering pumps and other necessary machinery has been dispatched to all district administrations where floods are expected while the PDMA is in touch with rescue and relief teams as well to save lives and infrastructure. "Currently, there are no chances of floods in Sindh but we are still preparing for the worst," he said, adding that there is no dearth of funds and machinery to deal with any untoward situation.
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