Watery hell

There must be planning for the future, based on it happening again

THe images are still coming through despite the breakdown of rail and road links. And they are harrowing. The kind of death and destruction meted out by the current floods is above that expected because of the monsoon. What has perhaps enhanced the awareness of the fortunate, who have not experienced such a catastrophe, has been the availability of social media, and the readiness of citizen journalists, themselves at risk, to record the horror and destruction.

However, it would be to live in a fool’s paradise to assume that such rains, such flooding, will not be repeated next year, or in subsequent years. climate change is no longer something nebulous a long way down the road. Its harmful effects are occurring now, It must also be understood that it will not be enough to throw bricks and mortar at the problem, because all the dykes and dams on which reliance was being placed have failed to work. There must be an effective evacuation plan, so that lives at least can be saved, if not livelihoods. For that, rehabilitation plans have got to be put in place, not just for this year, but the future as well.

These floods could not have come at a worse time, when the country is already facing political instability, the effects of the covid-19 epidemic and economic turmoil because of the Russo-ukraine war, even as it tries to keep on an IMF programme. That makes it creditable to the government that it has been able to line up foreign aid already. However, it should remember that such donations will be more difficult to get as crises are repeated in succeeding years. Apart from donor fatigue, climate change will be causing crises in those donor countries.