Sindh: a historical victim of disasters

[Naveed Yaseen]

The province of Sindh has historically suffered from both natural and human-made disasters. The high level of risk can be attributed primarily to floods and heavy rains, cyclones in coastal areas, sea intrusion, droughts, earthquakes, epidemics etc, according to Disaster Risk Management Plan for Sindh, which was launched in the city on 12th August 2009.

Since the creation of a modern irrigation network in 1932 in Sindh, when high floods monitoring started, the province was hit by severe floods 14 times starting from 1942 to 2007.

Citing the example of a similar disaster that hit Makran coast in Balochistan in 1945, and claimed the lives of 4,000 people, the report said that Sindh could also be vulnerable to tsunamis, as the six-feet-high waves which were created at the time affected harbour activities in Karachi.

The report feared that Sindh was at risk of a major earthquake in future due to a geological tectonic line that runs under Karachi through Khirthar Hills/mountains to north-west of Sindh. The last earthquake that hit the Thar and Badin in 2001 killed 12 people and destroyed 1989 houses and 1409 official buildings whose accumulated financial loss was estimated to be Rs2.4 billion.

Apart from drought and cyclone, sea intrusion has also devastated Thatta and Badin districts due to decline in water downstream Kotri barrage.

Referring to major fire incidents in the past, the report said that the arrangement for prevention and tackling of fire incidents were poor and even 12,000 industrial units lacked proper fire safety system.

Communal strife and epidemics such as hepatitis, dengue fever and environmental degradation were some other disasters which warranted the attention of the authorities.

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