LONDON: As communities around the world battle the worst floods in living memory, experts warn such events may become more frequent due to climate change and that lessons still need to be learnt to limit losses.
Floods may result in lower death tolls than earthquakes, wars or tsunamis — and therefore gain less international attention — but they can cause similar devastation.
Recent weeks have seen a string of such disasters.
Parts of China had the heaviest rainfall since records began, killing more than 400. Some 770 people have been killed by flooding in South Asia with hundreds of thousands displaced by flash floods in southern Pakistan.
“There are certain configurations that can produce flooding simultaneously in different parts of the world,” said Professor Colin Thorne, head of physical geography at England’s Nottingham University.
Climate change could make the problem worse, he warned. Many scientists say the world is warming because of carbon emissions from human activity, making weather more unpredictable.
LESSONS: But experts say many lessons still need to be learned and warn that flood defences have sometimes created a false sense of security, particularly in the most developed countries.
“With floods, the first thing to learn is that you cannot stop them,” said Professor Graham Chapman at Lancaster University. “You have to have a society that learns to live with them.”
Raised railway lines or roads can limit drainage and stop water escaping — which is why they are so often swept away, experts say. And yet post-disaster Western aid frequently concentrates on rebuilding them exactly as they were before.Drainage is often inadequate, while building is carried out without regard to flood patterns. Sometimes there is no long-term flood planning at all.
Experts recommend building houses that are more durable and survivable as well as capable of being brought back into use within a couple of months instead of over a year.
Failings in the response to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans showed that even a developed country like the United States could fall short in the face of widespread flooding if it is not fully prepared.—Reuters