Karachi, Sindh

The Cyclone Biparjoy has not yet hit the coastal districts of Sindh however the heavy rains have cut the land communication of Khharo Chhan area while Keti Bunder and Ghora Bari areas of Thatta district and Shahbunder of Sujawal district have lost the land communication partially.

According to current situation reported to the Chief Minister by the Commissioner of Hyderabad Division, the wind velocity in Khharo Chhan was 25 knots or 50km per hour and it remains cut off from rest of the areas due to continuous heavy rains.

The velocity of winds in Keti Bunder was 20 knots or 40km per hour. The area was under the heavy rain that has partially disconnected it from rest of the province.

In Ghora Bari area of Thatta district, the wind velocity was recorded at 18 knots or 36km per hour. The area is receiving intermittent rains due to which it remains partially disconnected from rest of the district.

Almost same situation prevails in Sujawal district, where the wind velocity was 20 knots or 40km per hour and the area of Shahbunder is partially cut off due to rains.

The wind velocity in Jati Taluka of Sujawal district was 38km per hour with intermittent rains but fortunately it remains connected with rest of the district.

Taluka Shaheed Fazil Rahu is receiving intermittent rains and the wind velocity here has been 22 knots or 45km per hour. The area has not lost land communication. Similarly, Badin Taluka is receiving intermittent rains and the wind velocity was 18 knots or 35km per hour.

The administration has shifted 70000 people from coastal areas of all these districts to safer places, the Chief Minister was informed.

The Keti Bandar had a population of 17000 from where 3000 people shifted voluntarily while 14000 were shifted by the administration.

The administration has setup 44 relief camps in three districts where 34766 people have been housed.

Further updates are yet to come. (PR)

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Karachi, Sindh

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that Cyclonic storm, BIPARJOY is likely to hit the cities and towns of the coastal belt between June 13 to 17 June which may cause heavy rains in Badin, Sujawal, Umkot, Tharparkar, and Karachi.

Quoting the Pakistan Met Office warning, Mr. Shah said that the Very Severe Cyclonic Storm (VSCS) “BIPARJOY” over the east-central Arabian Sea has further intensified into an Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm (ESCS), moved Northward during the past 12 hours, and now lies near Latitude 18.1°N & Longitude 67.5°E at about 760 km south of Karachi, 740km south of Thatta & 840km southeast of Ormara. Maximum sustained surface winds are 150-160 Km/hour, gusts 180 Km per hour around the system center, and sea conditions are phenomenal around the system center with a maximum wave height 35-40 feet.

The favorable environmental conditions (sea surface temperature of 30-32°C, low vertical wind shear & upper-level divergence) are supporting the system to maintain its intensity. Under the existing upper-level steering winds, the ESCS “BIPARJOY” is most likely to track further Northward until the 14 June morning, then re-curve Northeastward and cross between Keti Bander, (Southeast Sindh) and Indian Gujarat coast on the 15 June afternoon as a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm (VSCS).

The Chief Minister said that with the approach of the cyclonic storm to the Southeast Sindh coast, widespread wind-dust/thunderstorm rain with some very heavy/extremely heavy falls accompanied by squally winds of 80-100 km/hour likely in Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tharparkar & Umerkot districts during 13-17 June.

He said that Dust/thunderstorm rain with few heavy falls and accompanied by squally winds of 60-80 km/hour likely in Karachi, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Mirpurkhas districts from 13, 14 & 16 June.

Murad Shah said that high-intensity winds may cause damage to loose & vulnerable structures (Kutcha Houses). The Storm surge is expected at Keti Bander. The Arabian Sea conditions may get very rough high accompanied by high tides along the coast, therefore fishermen have been advised not to venture into the open sea.

The chief minister said that Thatta, Sujawal, and Badin have dangers, therefore he has sent Commissioner Hyderabad to evacuate people, if necessary. He added that the Karachi Commissioner has also been directed to secure billboards.

Shah urged the people not to come out of their homes unnecessarily when the storm hits the coast.

The chief minister said that he was in touch with Corps Commander Karachi, DG Rangers, and GOC Hyderabad to develop close coordination to avoid any untoward incident. (PR)

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There is no denying from the fact that flooding damages properties and endangers humans and all other living things. The floods are among the most frequent natural disasters that cause greater economic losses and bring difficulties to human activities. But the point to learn is that we should adapt ourselves with new climate changes. It will be more pertinent and in our advantage to be quick enough in persuading ourselves to live with rains and floods as it is reported that the monsoon rains in 2023 might be more fierce than that occurred recently. There are several countries in the world that receive heavy rains round the year and are faced with floods but even then the life goes on there as per routine.

Hence, stop thinking it as your destiny and get ready for worst since God helps those who help themselves. Now you have plenty of time to do something. If you cannot do anything then the last option is of migration.

Noor Hussain Brohi

Atta Muhammad Brohi Village Ratodero Sindh

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Thousands of babies are to born in Tents

One-third of Pakistan is inundated, as floods swept through the country this summer. The catastrophic floods, resulting from monsoon rains that began in June, are unprecedented in scale and scope. So far, they have affected some 33 million people — about 14% of Pakistan’s population — causing death, damage, displacement and loss whose effects will be felt for months and years to come. Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women have been displaced by the unprecedented floods in Pakistan. They urgently need proper medical care to ensure a safe pregnancy and childbirth. Pregnant women at the camps also complain of a lack of female doctors and midwives to help them.

Many peoples are distressed with this and are facing uncountable problems, one of them is child birth in that condition of their society or environment. Hence, many babies are expected to born in tents, because many villagers have no access to hospitals in these days and some hospitals are also damaged. Is this a safe option for babies and mothers who have to face a lot of problem due to flooding during pregnancy?

Bisma Narejo

Karachi Sindh

The post Learn to live with rains and floods first appeared on Sindh Courier.

They have erected ugly structures over depressions, ponds lakes and waterways.

Dr. Zaffar Junejo

Based on my limited knowledge and exposure, I have restricted this brief article only to Sindh’s cities and towns. However, it is too generic. If these warned words don’t hold you to stop reading, then, my terms apply, and you have to ponder over them. These are requisites: 1) settlements or even spaces are footed on physical geography; 2) change in physical geography affects human built-structures, and 3) different settlements irrespective of their forms are conditioned by local geography, 4) natural laws also apply to geography’s key principles.

Now, you may read the further paragraphs. These start here: our quick-fix type town planners, architects and civil engineers give an impression that urban towers, residential plazas and commercial malls are hanged somewhere in the sky. Therefore, none of them pays necessary heed to natural laws. Even their plans bypass preconditions of physical geography and human geography subjects.  Surely there was no question to expect from them to refer historical data related to rainfalls, floods, and disasters. Perhaps, they believe, Sindh’s cities exist beyond Earth’s atmospheric sphere, and are immune from any climatic change or physical laws. Really, I don’t know that with what confidence, they continued erecting their ugly structures over depressions, ponds lakes and waterways. Interestingly, it is not a case of Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur or Larkana. It has happened in every town.

Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s bad governance has pushed Sindh towards a new set of vulnerabilities.

I could say so, because I noticed it through Sindhi newspapers. I double checked, and spoke to my old NGO friends to get firsthand information. They confirmed newspapers reports, and told lot of incidents of havoc- none of governments’ representatives came to help, rain water stands everywhere, all natural ways, vacant government plots are occupied by local politicians of Pakistan Peoples’ Party, and other powerful persons belonging to various parties. They sadly told that soon stagnant water will harbor mosquitoes- then malaria, and contiguous diseases will lead towards another type of emergency.

The newspaper reports and conversation with friends compelled me to come up with some initial reasons of urban flood. These are findings: 1) conversion of adjacent agriculture lands into built-up areas, 2) occupation of empty spaces, 3) encroachment of waterways and drains, 4) cutting and eliminating of trees and gardens 4) and construction of ring-roads without considering typography of the area. One may say that our cities and towns are blocked by real estate investors.

We must realize that nowadays, unpredictable rains are part of climate change, but Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s bad governance has pushed Sindh towards a new set of vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are surfaced in emergencies and disasters. The case in point is of the current urban flood, which has exposed Sindh to physical, institutional and social vulnerabilities.

Let me unpack these vulnerabilities; the first one says the present government has failed to control land use, unplanned urbanization, and concentration of population in certain cities. Likewise, an institutional vulnerability means a raise in illegal settlements, theft of services (water, electricity and gas), and non-coordinated spatial-planning. However, in social vulnerabilities one could see gender biases, high rate of crime, frequent violence, institutions’ corruption, and officers’ incapacity to handle even minor emergencies.

Now the question before us is of action – what should be done? Or how we could halt these vulnerabilities? But, before that we should also consider that Sindh’s population is increasing, one lead factor is influx of illegal migrations. Resultantly, existing resources and infrastructures particularly of Karachi city are under pressure.

The present scene has unnaturally raised the value of land, and simultaneously houses are in demand. Therefore, builders in Karachi came forward and co-opt Sindh government’s officers to fill the supply side. It is all done in a haphazard way and every inch of land was turned into settlements. The greed and poor laws facilitated land grabbers to occupy public lands. They organized migrant and poor peoples’ settlements over the shoulders of waterways and drains.  Gradually, these settlements narrowed beds of waterways and drain, and water carrying capacity of those channels reduced. So, whenever, there is heavy rain they over-flow. It must be noted that these land grabbers lack individual memory, simply they don’t know where existed old waterways, drains or depressions. Therefore, in rain emergency they block the water’s way just to save their colony, but such blockage floods adjacent area, and inhabitant of that area follow the precedent act, they also block and divert the water and flood their neighborhood. Gradually, in a record time the whole of the city is flooded.

Our land use experts, and town planners must understand that urban flood risk management always trade-off among history, physical geography and physical planning subjects. Nowadays, urban floods are one of the lead hazards in cities and towns. These floods are potential to cause economic losses as well as trigger negative impacts on social development and environment. We shouldn’t forget urban flood’s quickness and damage in short spell of time.

Now again revert to earlier question, where lies the solution? Globally, there are three sets solutions to avert the urban flood. These are: 1) engineering solutions (construction new drains, smart towns, and creating artificial lakes and piping them to natural water sources), 2) socio-economic solutions (creating more employment opportunities in migrants’ home districts/provinces, and keeping their records) and, 3) planning and management solutions (promote ideas of green homes, rain water harvesting, tightening land laws, including building laws, severe punishment for land grabber). It must be well understood that each government opts different strategies, considering its political considerations. However, in the case of Sindh, we have to pressurize Sindh Government to come up with a grand strategy that handles all these proposed solutions.

I fully understand that Sindh Government is not too sensitive about lives and property of people of Sindh. Therefore, allow me to propose a doable plan to town planners and administers. It is simple, while planning a settlement they have to consider types of surfaces, topography of the area, locations of ponds, lakes and flow of natural waterways and drains. But, we should be very clear that urban flood is not scary word, simply it is a rain water that strives to find its way, and it may be a depression or a slope that has been blocked.

We shouldn’t forget that rain water being natural force is blind to distinguish that it has intruded into a poor man’s home or rich man’s castle. It is even insensitive to know that it has flooded temple, mosque, church or school. Water has to move on, keep a flow and follow natural law. It is character of water. Therefore, in present situation we have let only two options: clean and vacate all old waterways, drains or bound water to avoid physical law and listen our stupidity.

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Dr. Zaffar Junejo has a Ph.D. in History from the University of Malaya. His areas of interest are post-colonial history, social history and peasants’ history.

The post Urban Floods Again: What we have not learned? first appeared on Sindh Courier.