By Rina Saeed Khan
It’s that time of the year again when the country braces itself for the annual monsoon rains, dreading the floods that caused extensive damage to crops and homes in different parts of the country in the last few years. And this year seems to be no exception. Already Pakistan’s Meteorological Department (PMD) has stated that we should expect a heavy monsoon this year, as “Prevailing oceanic and atmospheric conditions are giving indications of good summer monsoon rainfall in the country… Summer monsoon rainfall is likely to be 10-20pc above normal all over the country, averaged for three months”.
The official warning on their website also states: “Some extreme rainfall events are likely to occur in the catchment areas of major rivers and other parts of the country which may cause floods” and that “some heavy downpour events may produce urban flooding in big cities”. There is more bad news for the mountainous north as the warning adds, “Some strong incursions of monsoon currents, coupled with high temperature, may trigger glacial lake outburst floods, landslides and flash floods in upper Khyber Pukthunkwa and Gilgit-Baltistan”.
The question that comes to one’s mind after reading these warnings obviously is: are we prepared for the floods? The answer, unfortunately, is no. There are no early warning systems in place to evacuate people and livestock in time.