We are standing at a fundamental moment: hesitantly hesitant or unite in a unique mission to guide this flood to the sea.
The Indo River roars with a force that has tried Sindh again and again. As a flood management apprentice, I have directly formed part of the river floods of 1994, 1997, 2010, 2015 and the floods induced by rain 2003, 2005 (Baluchistan), 2011 and 2022. And now, in just three or four days, a very high flood is loom over the province, threating with wrapping us once again.
The water is expected to exceed 700,000 CUSECs with a margin of uncertainty of 10-20 percent, pushing possible peaks and probably reached from 775,000 to 850,000 cusecs. Upstream, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have already been mistreated by floods that have charged hundreds of lives and shattered infrastructure, most of which was built on the river route or the floods of flooding of the rivers.
I have said this before, and I will say this again: people can forget, but the rivers remember their forms.
In KP, forests, once lush green, have shaved bald, causing fatal landslides. On the other hand, unplanned urbanization, an inadequate infrastructure resistant to floods and poor management of the river have aggravated the situation.
A mission
When it comes to Sindh, where 1.65 million lives are at stake, we stop at a fundamental time: hesitate under criticism or unite (government, institutions, communities) in a unique mission to guide this flood to the sea and save our people, our province, our country.
The Sindh irrigation department, accused of tame this colossal flow, faces acute scrutiny. The decades of planning and execution of weak flood infrastructure, political interference and systemic corruption in federal and provincial governance have eroded their capacity, resonant discomfort through the Pakistan disaster management framework, arrested for the historical floods of 2010 and 2022 that displaced millions and caused more than $ 30 billion in damages.
However, the department remains a cornerstone of the fight against floods, its engineers that have the line where the newest entities, such as the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Provincial Authority of Disaster Management (PDMA) fall short. The Department of Income and District Administrations, despite the inefficiencies rooted in their colonial and bureaucratic character, exercise immense power to mobilize resources, coordinate relief and enforce actions.
If we can shake their rigid and outdated forms and gather them to the mission of saving the country and its citizens, their authority can become positively for people and vulnerable areas. The general criticism, especially now, runs the risk of breaking the spirit of those in the first line.
Between panic, criticism and actions, the truth sounds clear: saving lives is the first. Let’s affect our criticisms of specific weaknesses (unpaid bombing doors, river bank invasions, private embankments) and act quickly to repair them.
The challenge
Sindh faces a unique challenge: the Indo flows in a high crest, higher than the surrounding land, without rape sections or exhaust routes for excess water. When the river is released, as it did in the rape of Tori Bund 2010, it escapes hundreds of miles long, flooding areas such as Lake Manchhar and the drowning of Khairpur Nathan Shah.
Since 2010, project promises for points of sale and flooding channels have stagnated, leaving us a task: guide floods to the sea safely. The 1,400 miles of embankments in the province, with 875 miles as a first line of defense along the Indo, maintain more than 140 vulnerable points prone to erosion, scrubbing or violations. The water speed requires that we strengthen this first line of defense in Guddu first, then almost immediately in Sukkur, and finally in Kotri Barrages.
In the heart of this crisis there are 1.65 million people in the areas of Ribereño Katcha in 14 districts: Sukkur, Larkana, Dadu, Hyderabad, Thatta, where 273,000 families, their homes, crops and cattle face danger. Once, the indigenous communities of flood plains prospered through nomadic resilience, moving to superior land with an ancestral knowledge of the rhythms of the river, and knew exactly what downloads from the river, what a mechanism of hobby would apply.
But the emergence of an aggressive economy based on agriculture has rooted permanent settlements, concrete homes and farmland, which are now vulnerable. Invasions for crops have drowned natural flood channels, increasing erosion risks and violations, as seen in past devastations.
Land owners in these areas deserve economic benefits, but these must align with historical practices, surveys of the British era, water laws and our Constitution, which guarantees that no one endangers the lives of another.
When the next water flows are restored, the evacuations have begun with more than 24,000 people transferred to more than 300 help camps. However, many cling to their Katcha houses, which are not willing to leave their cattle (read: their life).
Prime Minister Murad Ali Shah and Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro are inspecting sites, including Guddu bombing, his presence pointing out the urgency. To reach Katcha residents, mobile aid units, equipped with ships, emergency supplies and veterinary support, must deliver help on the site, honoring traditional coping strategies while addressing modern risks.
The agony and pain of the life of the camp were demonstrated in the floods of 2022, and the same echoes in the recent flooding camps of Punjab, a horrible experience, especially for women and the elderly.
The plan
From decades of floods faced, a clear path arises: a multiple layer strategy to safeguard Sindh.
First, strengthen the frontline line. Urgent repairs to embankments and bombing doors must start with Guddu, then Sukkur and Kotri. The “Three Em” (Man, Material, Machinery) are the base: active camps, trained personnel, excavators, excavators, open -supply routes and supply routes.
At the same time, small details are important: mosquito repellent for workers, life jackets for those who measure river levels by boat. Real -time monitoring through satellite data and caliber observations Field River, with alerts in Sindhi and Urdu, will keep us ahead of the flood. It must be throughout the day, not leave the first -line line unattended for a spur at the moment.
The next step is the mobilization of all institutions, from the Department of Income to the local administration. They must eliminate their colonial bureaucratic shackles, enforce the shares and join the engineers of the irrigation department who have “command unit” according to the BUND manual, a document detailing the rules for the operation and maintenance of the river channel.
The narrow bridges, such as Dadu-Moro, are strangled in the waters of the floods, as seen in 2010 when a cut on the approach road saved a city. Inspect and expand the bridge approaches now. The Plan of the Commission of the 2022 River River to expand all bridges must advance, regardless of the cost, once we have handled current floods safely.
Separately, local leaders and residents must support watches and patrol stalls, armed with swords and torches. Social networks can dissipate rumors or confirm threats, but only if we visit sites and act. Updated data on private embankments, ordered removed after 2010 by the Supreme Court, are critical. Have you returned for 2025?
Then it has been providing relief, particularly those who need it most. Start with the evacuation of women, children and the elderly. The camps need food, water, medicines and documents of documents, with mobile health units to stop disease outbreaks.
A national emergency can align federal and provincial efforts, with the NDMA that leads to facilitating the isolation of Sindh. The authority has power and money, but they are less linked to communities in the field. Here, the irrigation department and other organizations can provide links and connectivity.
The allocation of transparent resources, supervised by opposition leaders and civil society, will silence accusations of corruption. Ad Hoc working groups, guided by neutral bodies such as the Supreme Court Water Commission, can repair the institutional gaps.
Meet up
This flood exposes deep challenges.
The governance of the PPP since 2008 has faced accusations of prioritizing elite projects on the resilient infrastructure, while federal-provincial disputes on water persist. Pakistan’s reactive management management, staging reforms, amplifies climatic risks. The National Flood Protection Program IV has been in the crisis during the last eight years or so.
However, at this time, the wisdom of the Koran guides us: “Whoever comes out a life, is as if they had saved all humanity.”
With the hours marked, all relevant departments of the public sector, and all the units must join, throwing bureaucratic inertia for a mission to save lives, Sindh and Pakistan. Long-term reforms (mapping of vulnerabilities, anti-encurreadors, sustainable agriculture) we hope, but today we guide this flood to the sea, while the Indo waters do not wait for anyone.
Image of heading: A man has a sack of fodder in his head while walking along a flooded road, following the rains of the monsoon. – Reuters
