Flood Disaster Profile of Pakistan: A Review

Health and Safety Conditions in Four Major Industrial Sectors of Pakistan from 2010 To 2015

“…The diverse terrain and climatic conditions in Pakistan makes it susceptible to natural disasters ranging from heavy floods to earthquake [15]. In the summer months, when the monsoon season prevails in Pakistan, several rivers swell up and inundate the agriculture fields destroying the crops and cattle and sweeping away the people living and working on farms.…”

Climate Change Vulnerability of Pakistan Towards Natural Disasters: A Review

“…In terms of overall economic damages, floods have contributed the most. More specifically, in the past few years, riverine floods have predominantly affected majority of the population, livestock and other infrastructures [2,44]. Riverine flood events accounted for nearly 100% of the total damages in this duration (43)(44).…”

“…The Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has provided strong evidence that climate change is affecting most of the countries in the world [1]. The impact in terms of losses from such changes in climate are experienced differently across the world [2]. Developing countries are notably vulnerable (Houghton et al, 2001) because of their rapid population growth, unsustainable resource use, infrastructure constraints, relatively high exposure and low adaptive capacity for example, about 95% of all disaster related deaths occur in developing countries and other losses due to natural disasters are twenty times greater in the developing world than compared to developed countries [2,4,5].…”

“…Coastal areas face the flood and cyclones risk. Central parts and mid-river basins primarily face flooding risks, while southern Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan are vulnerable to drought [2]. According to the statistics of global vulnerability index, Pakistan is among the top 10 countries hard hit by climate change where large segments of its population are extremely poor and are highly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change.…”

“…Disaster management in Pakistan, particularly with regard to natural hazards, focuses mainly on relief and rescue processes with a lack of information and little understanding of the processes involved in hazard identification, risk assessment and management, and the relationship between people's livelihoods and disaster preparedness [15], which increases chances of vulnerability of the society especially the poor. Notable risk factors that increase vulnerability and contribute to the severity of disasters in Pakistan includes; lack of early or at least timely warning systems; limited awareness and education; lack of skilled manpower and more importantly lack of coordination among various government organizations puts large number of communities susceptible to both natural and human induced disasters [2,8,12].…”