LAHORE: Between 1950 and September 9, 2014, Pakistan has been confronted with nearly two dozen major floods, which have not only claimed at least 11,500 precious human lives, but have also collectively affected an area measuring over 0.6 million square kilometers — quite disheartening for a nation that has already lost over 50,000 of its inhabitants and close to $100 billion due to terrorism since the 9/11 episode. The worst of all — the 2010 floods — had alone inflicted a loss to the tune of $43 billion, which was then equivalent to the country’s export earnings for two years! Till 2012, according to a Federal Flood Commission report, devastating waters had led to 11,239 deaths, besides affecting an area of 599,459 square kilometers and 180,234 villages. Pakistanis have braved raging floods in 1950, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1995, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and now again in 2014. According to a Federal Flood Commission report of the time, the 1950 floods had claimed 2,190 lives and had flooded 10,000 villages, spreading over an area of 17,920 square kilometers. Some estimates even put the 1950 death toll at 2,900. A September 6, 1955 report of the “Associated Press” had stated that over 25 million people were left displaced in India and Pakistan due to heavy monsoon rains. More than 28,000 villages in the Indo-Pak subcontinent were also found submerged in water. These estimates were actually given by Indian Red Cross officials. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the June 1977 floods had made 10, 354 Pakistanis plunge into the valley of death. The September 1992 floods took a toll of 1,334 lives. The 1995 and 1996 floods left millions homeless. The March 1998 floods claimed another 1,000 lives. In 2003, Sindh was badly affected when above normal monsoon rainfall that had caused flooding in the province. The urban flooding had also hit Karachi, where two days of rainfall of 284.5 millimetres had literally played havoc. Meanwhile, the Thatta district was the worst hit where 404 millimetres of heavy downpour had caused flash floods in the district. At least 484 people had died and some 4,476 villages were adversely hit. In 2007, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and coastal Balochistan had badly suffered due to the monsoon rainfall. Sindh and coastal Balochistan were affected by “Cyclone Yemyin” in June and then owing to the torrential rains in July and August. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was affected by melting glaciers and heavy rainfall in July and August, 2007. At least 130 people had died and over 2,000 were displaced in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in July 2007 and 22 people had died in August of the same year. Similarly, nearly 900 people had lost lives in Balochistan and Sindh due to flash flooding. Then came the July/August 2010 floods, which had seen one-fifth of Pakistan’s total land area submerging underwater. These floods had affected about 20 million people and had killed over 2,000 humans, who had come in the way of the ruthless waters. It was estimated that the July/August 2010 floods damages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan areas were in excess of $43 billion (as mentioned
in the opening paragraphs). In September 2011, at least 361 people were killed; some 5.3 million people and 1.2 million homes were affected. But this was not the end to the tragedy as 1.7 million acres of arable land was inundated when massive floods had swept across the province of Sindh. In September 2012, more than 100 people had died and thousands of homes were destroyed, when intense rainfall had battered Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Southern Punjab and Upper Sindh. It goes without saying that thousands of acres of arable land were also affected resultantly. In August 2013, Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan had experienced heavy rains that had led to flash flooding. More than 180 died as a result of the floods, with over 100 perishing in Pakistan. Apart from floods, Pakistan has also been hit by other natural calamities such as earthquakes, windstorms, droughts and cyclones etc, meaning thereby that adversity is not new to the country we reside in. Some major incidents of human misery in this context are as follows: The June 12, 1964 cyclone had made landfall in Sindh’s Tharparkar and Hyderabad districts, killing 450 people and rendering over 400,000 homeless. The December 15, 1965 windstorm in Karachi had led to 10,000 deaths. The December 28, 1974 Hunza earthquake had caused between 4,700 and 5,200 deaths. The November 14, 1993 Category-1 hurricane had weakened over the sea near Sindh-Gujarat border due to high wind shear, but not before it had killed 609 people in Thatta and Badin districts. The June 1998, cyclone of Arabian Sea had killed 12 people in Karachi. The May 20, 1999 strong hurricane had hit Keti Bandar near Karachi, killing 6,200 people and had made landfall at peak intensity. The March 2000 drought affected over 2.2 million people. The October 2004 cyclonic storm killed nine people around Karachi. The devastating October 8, 2005 Muzaffarabad earthquake (the 18th deadliest earthquake of all time) left 100,000 dead and 138,000 injured, besides displacing another 3.5 million The June 2010 Arabian Sea cyclone had claimed 14 lives. Remember, before Pakistan’s birth in 1947, the May 31, 1935 quake in Quetta (then part of British India) had killed 60,000 people and the November 27, 1945 Balochistan quake had claimed about 4,000 lives.
