Headline, September 27 2022/ ''' '' FLOODS TERRIFYING FATHOMS '' '''

''' '' FLOODS TERRIFYING

 FATHOMS '' '''

H.E. NICOLA STURGEON - First Minister of Scotland : ''Women are disproportionately on the frontlines of climate crisis ........ and will be on the frontline of implementing its solutions.''

FOR PROUD PAKISTAN : THE CLIMATE CHANGE IS SO DEVASTATING. But, not so for India. The students should give this a thought and research this subject endlessly.

India too is impacted by this phenomenon in the same region and in the same period. Monsoons in fact make their way into Pakistan a month later than their advent in India - officially mid June.

And what we get and where we get in terms of the rainfall is greatly dependent on a large weather pattern which originates in Indian Rajasthan and adjoining Pakistan region of Sindh and South Punjab but only after Monsoons have dispensed most of their load in India and if they still have some juice left in them.

SO WHILE THE MONSOON PATTERN over India this year was exactly the same, rather sharper because it must travel across India to make it to Pakistan, the augmentation factors were far less in India than they were in Pakistan.

This will always remain true whenever extreme weather patterns take shape since mitigation that India inherently and so consciously has kept in place will save it against the severity of extreme climate and its destructive effect.

PAKISTAN in comparison has only paid abysmal attention and lacks the mechanisms for mitigation against increasing phenomenon extreme weather. It may still be time to make amends. 

Forthwith, we must plant trees in billions over large dedicated swathes to save our future generations from the plight of extremes in climate change if we indeed hope to survive as a civilisation.

Onto another mitigation and control strategy. The entire South Asian region is home to two of the world's river systems and the largest collection of glaciers outside of the polar regions.

These provide one of the biggest stocks of fresh-water supply to feed the billions that live on both sides of the Himalayas and the Karakorams, two of the world's longest and highest mountain ranges.

The Indus and the Brahmaputra, both originating in the Himalayas and traversing through Tibet, India and Pakistan, and Tibet, China, India and Bangladesh respectively get their supply from those glaciers.

When the temperatures are hotter the glaciers melt faster and become the source of added water in the rivers. Compounded by seasonal rains, especially when they are heavy because of climatic change and extreme weather the deluge becomes impossible to manage.

It spills beyond the capacity of most waterways and become the floods which destroy habitation, flora and fauna. Deprivation, poverty and inaccessibility to means to survive become rampant and disease takes over. Biblical accounts mention of entire civilisations being washed away by monstrous floods.

Brahmaputra has series of large dams built on it by China, India and Bangladesh. India has built numerous small and big dams on the Indus and Indus tributaries, Chenab and Jhelum even though it flows in a much longer trajectory in Pakistan. We have sadly been sitting by idly making noise which was mostly misplaced and rhetorical.

As a consequence Pakistan's live storage capacity which was 16.26 million acre feet is now reduced to around 13 MAF only which caters to only 30 days of water supply for the entire nation.

India has a carryover capacity for 170 days in comparison with Egypt 700 days. What was a 5000 cubic meter per capita water availability in 1947 is now below 900 thrusting us into water scarce nations; a nightmare for an agriculture based economy.

Pakistan can store only 10 per cent of the water that comes its way in the rivers. The rest is lost to the sea or wasted away in Frivolous consumption.

Dams store water and provide electricity. These also control, manage and channelise water in the courses that Pakistan was lucky to inherit from the British. The largest-canal based irrigation system in Punjab and the rest of the country is live storage which remains unused through efficient utilization of channelising excess water as was available this year.

More dams and more canals would double this capacity but has remained unattended in policy prioritization for their long gestation periods. Politicians instead prefer areas sourcing instant political return.

India in comparison was saved the wrath because of better conception and understanding of the phenomena and its levers of control and management.

The Sadness of this publishing for the present and the  future, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Shahzad Chaudhry.

With most respectful dedication to the students of Pakistan, and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all  prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society  -the exclusive ownership of every student in the world  :  wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! -The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless