The Month Long Flood

The 2010 Pakistan floods began in July 2010 after heavy monsoon rains affected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, lower Punjab as well as parts of Balochistan. It is estimated that two thousand people along with close to a million homes have perished so far.The United Nations estimates over 20 million people are suffering and homeless with over 160,000 square kilometres (62,000 sq mi) affected as a result of the flooding, exceeding the combined total of the affected of 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. However, the death toll in each of those three disasters was much higher than the number of people killed so far in the floods. Around a fifth of Pakistan's total land area was underwater due to the flooding.

UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon has asked for an initial $460 million for emergency relief, noting that the flood was the worst disaster he had ever seen. 50% of the relief funds requested has been received as of 15 August 2010. The U.N. is concerned that aid is not arriving fast enough, while the World Health Organization reported that ten million people were forced to drink unsafe water. The Pakistani economy has been harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and crops. Structural damages are estimated to exceed 4 billion USD, and wheat crop damages are estimated to be over 500 million USD. Officials estimate the total economic impact to be as much as 43 billion USD.

Current flooding is blamed on unprecedented monsoon rain. The rainfall anomaly map published by NASA shows unusually intense monsoon rains. On 21 June, the Pakistan Meteorological Department cautioned that urban- and flash flooding could occur from July to September in the north parts of the country. The same department recorded above-average rainfall in the months of July and Aug 2010, and monitored the flood wave progression. Interestingly, some of the discharge levels recorded are comparable to those seen during the floods of 1988, 1995, and 1997.

An article in the New Scientist attributed the cause of the exceptional rainfall to "freezing" of the jet stream, a phenomenon that simultaneously also caused an unprecedented heat wave and wildfires in Russia as well as the 2007 United Kingdom floods in the past.

The power infrastructure of Pakistan also took a severe blow from the floods, which damaged 10,000 transmission lines, transformers, feeders and power houses in different flood hit areas. Flood water inundated Jinnah Hydro power and 150 power houses in Gilgit. The damage caused a power shortfall of 3,135 MW.

Aid agencies have warned that outbreaks of diseases, such as: gastroenteritis, diarrhea, and skin diseases due to lack of clean drinking water and sanitation can pose a serious new risk to victims of flood. On 14 August, the first documented case of cholera emerged in the town of Mingora, as fear ran through millions of stranded victims of flood, who are already suffering from gastroenteritis and diarrhea. It has been reported by the International Red Cross that a large number of unexploded ordinance such as mines and artillery shells have been flushed down stream by the floods from areas in Kashmir and Waziristan and scattered in low lying areas, posing a future risk to returning inhabitants. The United Nations estimated that 800,000 people have been cut off by floods in Pakistan and are only reachable by air. It also stated that at least 40 more helicopters to ferry lifesaving aid to increasingly desperate people. Many of those cut off are in the mountainous northwest, where roads and bridges have been swept away.

On the direction of President Asif Ali Zardari, there were no official celebrations of 63rd Independence Day on 14 August as the country faces calamity.

Floods have submerged 17 million acres of Pakistan's most fertile crop land, have killed 200,000 livestock and have washed away massive amounts of grain. A major concern is that farmers will be unable to meet the fall deadline for planting new seeds in 2010, meaning a massive loss of food production in 2011, and potentially leading to long term food shortages. The agricultural damages are more than 2.9 billion dollars, according to recent estimates, and include over 700,000 acres of lost cotton crops, 200,000 acres of sugar cane and 200,000 acres of rice, in addition to the loss of over 500,000 tonnes of stocked wheat, 300,000 acres of animal fodder and the stored grain losses.

Agricultural crops like cotton, rice,sugarcane were badly affected in Punjab and to some extent mangoes as per the spokesman of Harvest Tradings-Pakistan. The international community should fully participate in the rehabilitation process as well as for the revival of agricultural crops in order to get better GDP growth in the future. The District Manager of Harvest Tradings Mr.Farooq Azam has visited the affected areas of South Punjab. According to him, some mango growers of Multan Division have raised their prices up to Rs 130/kg for profit taking in this disaster which is very surprising. He further said that Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited must write off all the agriculture loans of the affected areas in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa especially for small farmers.