Pakistan Floods: Why the tech couldn't help and the way forward

The unprecedented floods affected 30 million of the 220 million people and submerged a third of the country created havoc with humans, livestock, crops and general infrastructure on one hand to the extent that UN Secretary General called it a Climate Carnage, however on the other hand this also shows governance, management and tech failure.

In this age of data-driven decision making, a better governance, management and tech set up could have certainly avoided this, it is as much a man made disaster as a natural catastrophe. We all now know that the climate change impact is slow to reverse but if we were to stay here on this planet, in this country and province and the city we have no choice but to rebuild with care.

Here are my suggestions based on what I have been doing on the tech front for the last 30 years and my very small involvement in the relief work for the recent flood affected people. The purpose of this is to start a discussion amongst like minded people online so that we consolidate and propose a better utilization of the aid. from my previous work on tech and recent tiny involvement with the relief work:

1. Early flood and extreme weather warning systems?

2. Climate resilient affordable housing?and community structures

3. Effective and rapid relief work management

4. Education / awareness on climate change, health, lifestyle

1. Early flood and extreme weather warning systems: As the news of the floods from one city to another, one village to another began to came, I wondered why didn't our early warning systems work? The weather, topographical data, population and infrastructure data is readily available but we couldn't use it to save the lives and property. One reason most of the data remains unusable is because the data is being managed by different entities and cannot be integrated together. Another reason is that data is not available in the granularity that is required to make sense of the situation. We have seen that the rainfall and temperatures vastly differ even between close-by locations, hence a hyper-local monitoring network is required. The temperatures are higher around built up specially concrete structures and in congested localities and it is now known that they may trigger weather sub-systems. The web and mobile technologies along with social media is readily available for the dissemination of the information. Since we will be seeing more of this now, the data from this flood should be used to map the new catchment and flood areas. Not only that, radar and satellite data can also be used to determine the rate of inflows and outflows.
2. Climate resilient affordable housing and infrastructures: I traveled to Balochistan's Bela district specially Liari, Larak and beyond. While the houses were demolished and the roads were broken, one cannot ignore that this could have been totally avoided, I feel if it couldn't be managed Balochistan where the population is sparse and the villages are set up at distances, it couldn't be managed anywhere else. The water ways are already identified, an analysis of the current water catchment and flood areas can be readily made and mapped on the existing infrastructure and planned infrastructure. When building new neighborhood and relocating people back, also valid for Sindh area, new maps can be used that can show the water accumulation, the rate of inflows and rate of outflows. Here Architect Yasmin Lari is explaining the concept of aquafer and how and where to place them. Staying on the infrastructure, it's so broken that it is unbelievable that this was built by engineers. I have pondered on this aspect and I think this is a project management and contract management failure. Our projects and contracts are cost driven and mostly run by non-engineers, i.e., finance resources that have only one KPI in life - cut the cost. The projects are not being completed mostly due to unethical practice of withholding payments. (more on it some other time).
3. Effective and rapid relief work management: This has happened every single time and will continue to happen unless we change the model of relief work and goods transport. I understand this has to do with our reaction time but also with complete lack of governance and coordination. Why on earth every time something happens, the goods need to be transported from Karachi. Why can't we have reservoirs across the flood paths. It is because of our inability to share the data effectively and in timely manner. There is some intelligence with the FMCG distribution networks that can be utilized in these times along with the excellent relief efforts of our NGOs.
4. Education / awareness on climate change, health, lifestyle: Long time ago I remember reading about the Butterfly effect. This has stayed with me because it also connects your actions with larger scheme of things. We need to reach out to people to make them understand the climate change, how to combat it with their local wisdom and reliable information and how to bring the modern sources of information to use in their daily lives. But what really struck me is the population and quality of life that is being offered. I have met women that are on their 14th, let that sink in, 14th pregnancy. They are anemic, can't seem to be interested in life but are burdened by the life of 13 kids and the unborn. We are unable to teach men the consequences of their actions, the significance of having healthy family specially wife and importance of being able to provide for your family with respect. Lets also ask our government to spend on the health and education of the larger population.

I am happy to discuss specific solutions and how to execute them. Let's just hope that we do not ever see this kind of devastation in our lifetime!

#pakistanfloods2022 #pakistanfloods #climatechangeaction #climatecarnage #techforclimatechange