HYDERABAD: Successive sessions on flood fault lines — the theme of the Eighth Hyderabad Literature Festi-val (HLF) — dominated proceedings of concluding day of the even on Sunday evening with experts like Dr Kaiser Bengali sharing his candid views to contend that infrastructural weaknesses have much to do with present destruction seen in the wake of last year’s floods in the country.

A session titled “Grand Debate on Flood Fault Lines” was moderated by Mohsin Babar and also witnessed senior engineer Shafqat Wadhu, environmental expert Afia Salam and others in the panel. They threw light academically on the HLF theme proposing that “we should look into our weaknesses, too, instead of passing the buck on to climate change”.

Kicking off the debate, Afia Salam said it would be unjustified to blame everything on climate change although the phenomenon was evident. She argued it was torrential rains that were reported in areas not conventionally known for receiving that quantum of rains. “Indus didn’t burst its banks as floods passed smoothly,” she said, and added that forewarnings often go unheeded and that become disastrous. She said infrastructural weaknesses needed to be looked into so that everyone should be ready for a heavy rainfall.

Dr Kaiser Bengali shared his experience when he was part of Sindh government as planning & development adviser during the 2010 super floods. “We had decided to shift people affected by the 2010 floods but we were told that affected people are voters and peasants of those who matter,” he said, and added that the landowners argued that what would happen to them (the landowners) in case the peasants were shifted to some alternative places.

He said that the losses that had already been suffered by survivors were irreversible and that “there were issues of governance”.

Mr Bengali believes that dam-sort of small fish farms were also cause of destruction, and said this time around, landowners decided to have their fish retrieved first before allowing cut for diversion of water. He asserted without abolition of the jageerdari system, Sindh could not progress as “the powerful listen to none”. “We have perhaps decided we don’t have to go for mitigation,” he remarked, and said perhaps IMF’s agreement would make people forget everything. He urged people to get rid of capitalists and jageerdars for their own emancipation.

It’s unjustified to blame everything on climate change, environmentalist tells HLF audience

Shafqat Wadhu said history thrives in the lap of geography. “Sindh used to witness entire cultivation on floodwaters and then came the era of construction with building of roads, bridges and railway tracks,” he said, pointing out that this exposed the system. He recalled that flood protective (FP) bund that runs parallel to Manchhar from upper Sindh’s Qambar Shahdadkot district had been breached previously in 1995. He said now quality of bricks was not the same that was seen in the British era as there is no quality control. People have also settled on locations that could not be commended for population if floods’ course has anything to go by.

Former diplomat Jamil Ahmed Khan recommended implementation of disaster management plan right from taluka to district levels. He said if funds constraints were there then at least available funds should be efficiently utilised. He said his 10-year diplomacy’s experience educated him that donors always remained concerned about their funds being properly utilised. He said only 30pc to 40pc pledges were given effect. Donors were available to fund drainage projects provided they were approached, he added.

Umer Karim, an irrigation researcher, told the audience that Sindh was a drainage basin historically and it has to receive the entire quantum of upstream water. He said waterways from Balochistan also flow into Sindh and accumulation of rainwater in the wake of rainfall use to collect in waterways but nowadays we don’t have these waterways to receive this runoff.

Water activist, Zulfikar Halepoto said whole water paradigm faces default and unless political will was manifested, nothing could change as politicians would spend time with their ad hoc approach. He accused the provincial government of withdrawing from Sindh’s water case before federal government.

The session on ‘Climate Change and Future of Planet’ was addressed by Nasir Panhwar, an environmentalist.

He believes that three major fossil fuels — oil, gas and coal — contribute to global warming. Developed world is responsible for global warming as Pakistan’s contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) is below 1pc. “While we blame the West for climate change, we must put our house in order through climate resilient development and floods are an evidence that our model of development is unsustainable,” he said.

His co-panelist, Mahmood Alam Khalid, said that calamities being discussed were reflective of climate change crisis. He said that time to respond to climate change effects had passed, and added that scientists had timely warned of tackling climate change but no strategy was devised. Poor nations are bearing the brunt of climate change. He said Pakistan was the first country having been hit by the climate change phenomenon.

Najia Ashar discussed ‘Gender Equality in Journ-alism: a Critical Discussion” at another session, mentioning that women face gender issue everywhere including newsroom. While females were working as junior, their ratio in senior positions is small. She said only 5pc women were in the field of media because they were part of patriarchal society where women face so many issues.

Dr Kaleem Lashari and Ishtiaq Ansari also enlightened audience on heritage of Sindh at a session moderated by Shabnam Gul.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2023