Flood Fury

The familiar ingredients of a warming world were in place: searing temperatures, hotter air holding more moisture, extreme weather getting wilder, melting glaciers, people living in harm's way, and poverty. They combined in vulnerable Pakistan to create unrelenting rain and deadly flooding. The flooding has all the hallmarks of a catastrophe juiced by climate change, but it is too early to formally assign blame to global warming, several scientists tell The Associated Press. It occurred in a country that did little to cause the warming, but keeps getting hit, just like the relentless rain. This year Pakistan has received the highest rainfall in at least three decades. So far this year the rain is running at more than 780% above average levels, said Abid Qaiyum Suleri, executive director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute and a member of Pakistan's Climate Change Council. Extreme weather patterns are turning more frequent in the region and Pakistan is not an ...

The government of Canada's British Columbia declared a state of emergency in the Pacific province due to floods and mudslides caused by rainstorms in the last few days.

With reference to "Flood fury" (August 1), it is highly intriguing to observe that the entire nation currently faces nature's fury in the form of the widespread floods. The flooding of vast areas across the country has become more of an annual ritual. It is important to point out that some parts are still confronted with the problem of scanty rainfall at the same time. The editorial disturbingly reveals that along with lightning strikes, the floods have claimed 85 lives in the last few days in Assam, Bihar and Odisha. There are also reports about the displacement of an estimated 6.8 million people.Media reports have also shown the pathetic conditions prevailing in some of the nation's "smart cities" such as New Delhi, Bengaluru and Gurgaon soon after rainfall, which reflect the abject failure of the respective administrations. The prolonged traffic jam faced by motorists in Gurgaon was unprecedented, and left the state government red-faced owing to its inability to resolve the problem

With reference to "Flood fury" (August 1) rains are always a test of the quality of urban infrastructure. The country does not seem to draw any lessons from each instance of floods - be it in Kashmir, Chennai or even Uttarakhand. Gurgaon is seen as a "slum of the rich" - a town of the affluent but with poor infrastructure. Seventy per cent of its water needs are being met from below ground which has led to a sharp decline in the water table in the last 20 years, while only 40 per cent of the town has sewer lines. As for Bengaluru, a 1005 per cent increase in concretisation (paved surfaces) during 1973-2016 has resulted in an adverse impact on the garden city's wetlands, green spaces and groundwater levels. No wonder, both the cities sank.One wonders when elementary sense will dawn on our cities to stop encroachment on spaces like catchment areas and wetlands that are meant to receive floodwaters and replenish groundwater. Drains have to be regularly de-silted and cleared of plastic so