4 ms·

I heard the Punjab has a great irrigation program and that is the reason why they do not suffer floods like Sindh, outside of the usual regionalism are there an

I heard the Punjab has a great irrigation program and that is the reason why they do not suffer floods like Sindh, outside of the usual regionalism are there any constraints in developing similar irrigation and flood control apparatus in Sindh.

alephnerd 4y ago
Disclaimer - I'm not from that area, but I was talking with a buddy of mine from Larkana about this and the region of Sindh and Punjab that was badly affected is basically a badland with bad governance [0][1][2][3][4]. Also fits in line with the Saraiki folk songs I've listened to. On the northern and central Punjab side I'm not surprised that it was not badly effected thanks to the Canal colonies that the British built out there [5]. My mom's side of the family is from the Jhelum Colony originally before Partition [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikarpur_Operation_2021 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikarpur_Operation_2021 [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazroo_Narejo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazroo_Narejo [2] - https://tribune.com.pk/story/2370767/dacoits-kidnap-torture-two-hostages-in-sindh https://tribune.com.pk/story/2370767/dacoits-kidnap-torture-... [3] - https://www.dawn.com/news/1625938 https://www.dawn.com/news/1625938 [4] - https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.476.1647&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.47... [5] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab_Canal_Colonies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab_Canal_Colonies
- jfk13 4y ago
  Sindh does also have a pretty extensive irrigation network; e.g. see https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=21082183d13140809705fdd5647f91fc&extent=64.5245,23.1609,73.2476,29.0085 https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=21082183d1.... (I don't know how it compares to that in Punjab, though, nor whether it is well or badly maintained and managed.)
  - alephnerd 4y ago
    Based on the GIS dataset it's mostly Wahs, Distis, and Nullehs. You need an actual high capacity canals and locks to mitigate the kind of flooding seen in over the past few days. But the law and order situation in that region is a bit erm, lacking, compared to Northern+Central Punjab where industrial level canals the Brits left behind appear to be maintained. A lot of these regions where the flooding happened are also former princely state areas, so there wasn't that much infrastructural investment.
    - selimthegrim 4y ago
      They reline the canals, but other than Taunsa barrage it feels like they haven’t put as much effort into new drainage/catchment. Sindh has firmly resisted new upstream dams due to salinity concerns among other things.
      - alephnerd 4y ago
        That makes sense. There really needs to be more investment in canal infrastructure in Northern Sindh and Southern Punjab. These kinds of floods were common in East Punjab/Himachal/Jammu back in the 70s and 80s (especially the 1988 flood [0]), but a lot of investment was put into meteorological forecasting, drainage, and disaster preparedness in the 90s and 2000s to try and mitigate something like that from happening again. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Punjab_floods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Punjab_floods
- selimthegrim 4y ago
  My mother spent some time in Guddu growing up, down the road from Kashmore. My cousin who lives nearby to me now grew up in Daharki around the same time early to mid 70s. His bandit stories are a little hair raising. Larkana looked a little rough when I went there about a decade ago but I think there has been substantial highway construction there at the very least since.

alephnerd 4y ago

Disclaimer - I'm not from that area, but I was talking with a buddy of mine from Larkana about this and the region of Sindh and Punjab that was badly affected is basically a badland with bad governance [0][1][2][3][4]. Also fits in line with the Saraiki folk songs I've listened to. On the northern and central Punjab side I'm not surprised that it was not badly effected thanks to the Canal colonies that the British built out there [5]. My mom's side of the family is from the Jhelum Colony originally before Partition [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikarpur_Operation_2021 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikarpur_Operation_2021 [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazroo_Narejo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazroo_Narejo [2] - https://tribune.com.pk/story/2370767/dacoits-kidnap-torture-two-hostages-in-sindh https://tribune.com.pk/story/2370767/dacoits-kidnap-torture-... [3] - https://www.dawn.com/news/1625938 https://www.dawn.com/news/1625938 [4] - https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.476.1647&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.47... [5] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab_Canal_Colonies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab_Canal_Colonies

jfk13 4y ago
Sindh does also have a pretty extensive irrigation network; e.g. see https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=21082183d13140809705fdd5647f91fc&extent=64.5245,23.1609,73.2476,29.0085 https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=21082183d1.... (I don't know how it compares to that in Punjab, though, nor whether it is well or badly maintained and managed.)
- alephnerd 4y ago
  Based on the GIS dataset it's mostly Wahs, Distis, and Nullehs. You need an actual high capacity canals and locks to mitigate the kind of flooding seen in over the past few days. But the law and order situation in that region is a bit erm, lacking, compared to Northern+Central Punjab where industrial level canals the Brits left behind appear to be maintained. A lot of these regions where the flooding happened are also former princely state areas, so there wasn't that much infrastructural investment.
  - selimthegrim 4y ago
    They reline the canals, but other than Taunsa barrage it feels like they haven’t put as much effort into new drainage/catchment. Sindh has firmly resisted new upstream dams due to salinity concerns among other things.
    - alephnerd 4y ago
      That makes sense. There really needs to be more investment in canal infrastructure in Northern Sindh and Southern Punjab. These kinds of floods were common in East Punjab/Himachal/Jammu back in the 70s and 80s (especially the 1988 flood [0]), but a lot of investment was put into meteorological forecasting, drainage, and disaster preparedness in the 90s and 2000s to try and mitigate something like that from happening again. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Punjab_floods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Punjab_floods
selimthegrim 4y ago
My mother spent some time in Guddu growing up, down the road from Kashmore. My cousin who lives nearby to me now grew up in Daharki around the same time early to mid 70s. His bandit stories are a little hair raising. Larkana looked a little rough when I went there about a decade ago but I think there has been substantial highway construction there at the very least since.