Climate minister links flood devastation to 'entrenched elite culture' in country

• Malik says mistrust persists among provinces over dams and canals.
• Minister says consensus on water infrastructure had been lacking.
• Telemetry only solution to end lack of trust between provinces: Malik

As country reels under heavy floods and consequent devastation, Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Musadik Malik has said that Pakistan is suffering from an entrenched elite culture, where riverside properties belong only to the powerful rather than the poor.

“There is no poor man’s hotel on the riverbank — only resorts of the powerful,” he said while speaking on Geo News programme "Geo Pakistan".

Mistrust persists among provinces over dams and canals, with each suspecting the other of withholding water, he added.

“Balochistan believes it is deprived and that Sindh gets water but does not pass it on,” he remarked, adding that consensus on water infrastructure had been lacking.

The minister described telemetry as the solution to end lack of trust between the provinces. Work on the project, he said, had already begun and was expected to be completed within a year or so.

Malik highlighted that people have cultivated their crops inside riverbeds, that has further aggravated the flood situation.

He warned that Sargodha had begun to feel the impact of flooding and projected that once rivers converge at Panjnad, water flow could rise to one million cusecs.

He noted that evacuations were carried out on advance warnings, with both people and livestock moved to safety. In one case, 30 residents initially refused to leave their village but were persuaded to evacuate; floodwaters have since reached the area, he added.

The minister stressed that without water reservoirs at the tehsil and district level, the country will remain vulnerable. He called for the creation of natural water reserves across Pakistan to deal with future crises.

Pakistan is battling torrential monsoon rains that have unleashed flash floods, swelled rivers, and filled dams, with more than 800 deaths reported since late June. Amid the heavy rains, India released excess water this week from its dams, swelling river flows downstream in Punjab.

The NDMA said that Pakistan evacuated more than 210,000 villagers near the rivers Ravi, Sutlej, and Chenab that flow from India.

Pakistani officials on Thursday said India passed on its third flood warning since Sunday, this time for the Sutlej, while the previous two concerned waters heading into Pakistan on the Ravi.