Pakistan floods threaten key barrage in southern Sindh

[JCMach1]

Source: BBC News

...In the early hours of Monday morning, the water flow coming down the Sukkur Barrage was recorded at up to 1.4m cusecs (cubic feet per second). It is only designed to withstand 900,000 cusecs.

Upper Sindh is already under water, and rescuers are continuing to evacuate people from the province, where the Indus river banks are at risk of bursting. Two million people have already left the area.

Meanwhile, two major private Pakistani television channels, Geo and Ary, have reportedly been blocked in Karachi and other parts of Sindh.

No official reason has been given, although correspondents say media criticism of President Asif Ali Zardari and his government's response to the flood disaster is likely to have played a key role.

The networks had been reporting how a shoe was thrown at Mr Zardari during a rally organised by his Pakistan People's Party in England on Saturday...

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10910778

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Also good video on this link. The flood is emerging a huge disaster and this is really straining an already troubled political climate where Zardari had a shoe thrown at him this week. Additionally, he has also faced criticism for his massive chateau in France.


Live on BBC they just stated that the scope of this disaster will most likely dwarf the Asian Tsunami and the 2005 earthquake.

[aquart]

1. What's a "barrage"?

Wait a minute. Over a quarter million are expected to die in this?

[JCMach1]

2. I think they mean dikes and dams... the headline is in 'British' English

Definition:

Civil Engineering . an artificial obstruction in a watercourse to increase the depth of the water, facilitate irrigation, etc... http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/barrage

[intaglio]

7. It's a Barrage because it's at the tidal end of the river

At times of drought it acts as a dam keeping the irrigation canals full; during typhoons it can stop storm surges up river and stopping salt water getting into the irrigation system; at times like this it presents a minimum profile to the river allowing drainage.

How important is it? Well if it gets washed out by this storm 6000 miles of irrigation canal risks going dry and the resulting famines would make the death toll from these floods seem minor.

[aquart]

11. There's a frightening context.

Does it look like it's going to happen? When will we know?

[intaglio]

13. How likely is it to wash out?

Very unlikely - thanks be

Originally was a high value project serving many purposes:

firstly, it enhanced the prestige of the Raj and it's image of beneficence;
secondly, it provided much needed work to workers in India at a time when they were suffering from the effects of the depression;
thirdly, it was part of a Keynesian solution to economic downturn of the time, spending money to benefit British and Empire suppliers (the Sydney Harbour Bridge the RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth were constructed in the same period).

Because of these factors and the historical time period the engineering will have been done with a very high safety factor.

[aquart]

10. Thank you. I'd never heard the term.

[OhioChick]

3. Keeps getting worse...

:(

K&R

[JCMach1]

4. Think of all the climate stories in the news now... I am afraid this will be the new norm

:(

[OhioChick]

12. That's what I fear.....

Too many weather related catastrophes. :(

[TheMadMonk]

5. Reading about the behaviour of the people, one has to wonder sometimes.

What exactly do they expect?

Unlike earthquakes, tsunamis, and wildfires, floods are the disaster that keep on giving. The catastrophic parts are not on you and over or past in minutes or hours.

Perhaps the two silenced stations were playing games like US media is wont to do, harping continuously on the the "newsworthy" lack of response by the government whilst giving no air time to why conditions are making it so difficult get timely relief to those who need it.

And that the insurgent/terrorist cells are able to do where the govenment is unable is unsurprising. They're already more or less in position and already set up to move goods on foot, donkey and probably inflatable boat. The well equipped, semi-centralised government has a lot of high tech toys that can't get anywhere until the waters subside, and what they do have that is useful is too far from where it is needed. Which only gives those with interests other than humanitarian further "evidence" towards the ineptness of the government.

It works for disaster capitalists and it works for terrorists just as well.

[JCMach1]

6. Zardari's approval is somewhere south of Nixon's at this point and falling and honestly

he couldn't take the heat any more.

[JCMach1]

8. Update: Pakistan floods hit 13 million

The number of people suffering from the massive floods in Pakistan exceeds 13 million — more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the United Nations said Monday.

The death toll in each of those three disasters was much higher than the 1,500 people killed so far in the floods that first hit Pakistan two weeks ago. But the U.N. estimates that 13.8 million people have been affected — over 2 million more than the other disasters combined.

The comparison helps frame the scale of the crisis, which the prime minister said on Monday was the worst in Pakistan’s history.

It has overwhelmed the government, generating widespread anger from flood victims who have complained that aid is not reaching them quickly enough or at all.

“The number of people affected by the floods is greater than the other three disasters combined,” Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Associated Press... http://khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/August/international_August464.xml§ion=international

[JCMach1]

9. US is already helping- kudos to Obama

US rescues 1,000 people from Pakistan floods
(AFP)

10 August 2010, 8:47 AM
WASHINGTON — The United States has helped save more than 1,000 lives in Pakistan as the country struggles with massive flooding, the White House said on Monday.

“US helicopters are supporting rescue efforts and have saved more than 1,000 to date,” said a statement from National Security Adviser General James Jones.

The US government has provided 35 million dollars in financial aid in flood-related assistance, including 436,000 halal meals, 12 pre-fabricated bridges, water filtration units and emergency generators, he added... http://khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/August/international_August465.xml§ion=international