The disastrous redesign of Pakistan’s rivers
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- Опубліковано 29 січ 2023
- British colonizers created a massive canal system in Pakistan - and helped cause the country’s deadly water crisis.
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In late summer of 2022, Pakistan experienced a devastating flooding event. An unusually severe monsoon season induced by climate change resulted in a third of the country being covered with water. Over 1,600 lives were lost, and water took months to drain out of lower-lying regions of the country, causing disease and displacement.
On the flip side, Pakistan is among the most water-scarce countries in the world - expected to reach absolute water scarcity by 2025 if nothing changes. You can’t remove climate change from this equation, but an overlooked factor is the role that British engineering played in building water infrastructure along the Indus River and its tributaries, Pakistan’s sole source of surface water.
A series of perennial canals, dam-like structures called barrages, and embankments were built to extract as much water from the Indus as possible and convert much of Pakistan’s arid landscape into farmland. But this water infrastructure exacerbates the destruction of flooding events and creates a hierarchical system along the canals in terms of water access.
In our video, we explain the design of this water infrastructure and how Pakistan’s colonial past has made the country’s relationship with water even more precarious.
Daanish Mustafa, who we interviewed for this video, co-authored a report on Pakistan’s water crisis:
www.usip.org/publications/201...
We recommend The Juggernaut’s reporting on the legacy of dams in Pakistan:
www.thejuggernaut.com/pakista...
For more context on how Pakistan bears the brunt of the effects of climate change:
www.theatlantic.com/internati...
We interview David Gilmartin for this story, who authored a book on the history of water engineering in the Indus basin:
bookshop.org/p/books/blood-an...
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As a hydrologist and water resource engineer, this really hits close to me.
Most of the time, we engineers understand the problem/s and can always produce holistic solutions to water resource management.
But unfortunately, we always hit the wall of politics, bureaucracy, corruption, and uninformed decision-makers.
I really wish we experts can really have the final say on matters of water resource management.
I wish everyone especially politicians can understand that water doesn't care about your politics, religion, or affiliation.
We must always remember that "we all live downstream".
You keep using this word "always". I dont think it means what you think it means.
@Zaydan Alfariz u have a point. But I think he is referring more to efficiency and improvement of the sistem, plus more safety and regulation (technical stuff) as opposed to more of the same sistem. Meaning, maintenance and improvement as opposed of adding on.
@Zaydan Alfariz ya, having a bit more control in family planing would help, but I don't think pak is ready for that due to religious leaders position about that.
@Zaydan Alfariz I know, it's why I think it would only be possible as something thru the state and for free. But not all societies are open for it, it ends up as a political discussion of back and forward with name calling and emotions running high as opposed of a national projects for the future.
Very difficult situation. And other places the demographics are going the opposite direction 🤷♀️
sometimes you "experts" are the ones who commit the most corruption. you keep talking about engineers wanting to take holistic approach but when it comes to data collection, talking to the root level people, engineer supervisors just overlook them, play favorite, either prolong the projects or shorten the projects unnecessarily. at least i have been on enough projects to know this. sometimes experts just transfer the blame on decision makers or politicians and play victim. it is getting annoying really.
but wouldn't rolling back the "modern" irrigation systems mean also going back to subsistence farming + fewer people being able to be sustained by pakistans acres?
The issue is that the modern method is short sighted.
Yes. but Pakistans area simply is not capable of sustaining over 200 million people. Pakistani's simply should have less childeren.
Yes, so they shouldn't go from one extreme to the opposite extreme.
And that is really scary. The choice of what to sacrifice always deters people from making the choice.
hydroponics (if there's a political will there is a way)
As a Pakistan citizen living in Lahore, this really is very concerning but our army, corrupt govt officers and politicians don't even care a bit about the future generations, they have created a negative economic and political environment on purpose so that there power remains intact, while the major issues like climate change, water scarcity and economic growth and development are getting neglected
Abhee ambend karne me kuch nahi atha ladna hoga Pakistan future ki bath he
what army has to do with this?
@@factoshala1487 army destabilize every pak gov in history no democratic gov in Pakistan has ever completed its term 🤣
@@kaustubhraizada Democratic governments have, indeed, completed their terms. Check again. You're talking about Prime Ministers.
@@shaheer_04 Pakistan democracy you're joking right?
The first 6 minutes were focussed on colonialists deteriorating the land for money/power and the fact that an independent Pakistan significantly ramped up the canal system over 30-40 years was glossed over in 20 seconds
That’s VOX for you, my friend
Point being?
@@Vatsalya17 just a comment on what I saw
Although they are right on a number of issues they do love blaming the west for everything 😂
Someone made a good point that it’s not necessarily a colonialist mindset, but an industrialist one. Which explains to an extent why it’s continued long after the era of active colonialism.
The criticism of British colonialism are of course valid, but relying on 150 year old traditional knowledge and trying to turn back to a "natural" state of things is unlikely to yield satisfactory results.
Water-engineering drastically increased the amount of farmable land, that is now needed to feed Pakistan's vastly larger population. The struggle over grain exports from Ukraine and Russia have shown how dangerous an over reliance on food imports can be particularly for poorer countries.
With Pakistan's economy reliant on agriculture, there is also the risk of an economic crisis, that could have similarly severe impacts as some of these natural disasters.
Building a water management system with the modest means of a developing economy that equitably provides enough water to irrigate enough land to feed people in a world that is plagued by ever more extreme weather events, seems like a task with impossible constraints.
With no clear solution in sight, arguments against the proposed solution need to be more substantial than "it's unnatural and the British came up with it".
I agree. Its kind of funny how they pretend pre-colonial Pakistanis(Indians) had it all figured out when millions of people regularly died from famine and floods before the British arrived. .
I'd like to believe we went a long way since then, and the British weren't building the irrigation system to be equitable in the first place.
I am also indian and ya the British did bad thing it's about time people and politicians stop use them as an excuse of their incompitance and also this is not colonial mindset but industrial mindset and the first industrial countries just happened to be the colonial countries.
No it is invalid. They are already on their own for almost 100 years, the fault is on them
this Isn't Britsh fault
She proposed indigenous solution
What indigenous 😂
If I understand this video correctly, the population explosion of Pakistan is directly related to the engineering of the Indus (makes sense, more agriculture = more food = more people). But that means you can't revert to "indigenous knowledge" as their engineering was designed for a much smaller population. The thing I took away from this video is that just like with the world as a whole, the country over-engineered its way to an unsustainable state, and cannot reverse it now.
Yeah, they always do these things. Celebrate the old indigenous ways, then ignoring the current population numbers. Sure it works if you want the old Ted route, but these people often doesn't want that either.
I agree; however the system could be engineered to benefit the environment and the people who depend on it, it would first have to figure out how to feed all the people who are reliant on the land. I'm just not sure how you would do that 'old school,' while acknowledging that the 'new school' should have been sitting at the back of the class the whole time
Spot on. It’s very easy to stay “stick to indigenous systems”.
In India, we have our own issue of poorly developed towns and cities on the Himalayas which will bite back sooner than later
The solution was to either control population or incentivise mass migration to the plains in order to maintain ecological balance
In this case, Pakistan has 0 option but to rely on engineering to feed a dramatic rise in population across the nation
The bigger mistake was the approval of wrong projects designed by corrupt and incompetent stakeholders
It’s not that simple, you can’t learn everything about everything about such a complicated problem in a short video. One major factor they didn’t even mention in the video is the problem with India. The Indus River originates from the Himalayan mountains and India who also has a massive population wants the water for their own needs. They’ve built dams and have diverted the flow of water to their territory which means less water for the people of Pakistan. Population growth + less water for farming = disaster.
It will not be impossible to mend our infrastructure and economics in a way that can revert us back to a sustainable way of living. As such the solutions given in the video are not saying to go back to the old way of living rather integrate the historical and environmental knowledge about the region into our social and infrastructure policy as well. You know, don't just give space to the upper class and elites to speak, let other folks speak as well that are not bringing a coloialist mindset, rather a more indiginous one.
And it is also important to note that the population boom in the region is also socially engineered. Contraceptives and birth control and managment are vehemently opposed by the religiously extremist factions within the region. Islam, another foreign gift to the land makes its marks on the country and make certain changes and development in the country almost impossible
I'm Pakistani and I'm telling you, The canals and Dams aren't the issues, the issue is mismanagement and actually not modernizing this almost century-old irrigation system!!
It was less miss management and more of climate change
@@ACreative_name exactly. we can't run out nature
That's not true. It's the Force of the nature
@@naintarabatool1150 Yes an Unprepared Country because of Corrupt Rulers, Generals for an otherwise almost always Vulnerable to Climatic Changes
You're right
Goat herders run Pakistan
What a strange video! Super interesting on the history and hydrology part but so visibly wrong on the social commentary. From what I gather, the British started to build a canal system in the early 1900s and independent Pakistan continued similar projects to make a desert fertile. Then a hundred years later a number of unfortunate events at the same time culminate in a massive flood with 1,600 casualties. Tragic indeed. But the proposed alternative, which seems to be "dismantle the colonial canal system and go back to indigenous methods of managing water", basically means to go back to a state in which Pakistan is able to sustain maybe 10 or 20 millions of people tops - not the 230 million it has today. So instead of 1600 casualties over 100 years, you'll have more than 200 million casualties and constant hunger (because an average woman in Pakistan has a few children).
You summed it up briefly and perfectly.
People often forget there are more Pakistanis then ever. So more food might be one of the reaosns.
Exactly. The British canals seem to have been very effective and beneficial. It was only after Pakistan became independent and pushed the system beyond its limits by trying to make it support 5x as many people
Thats tight.But we also dont know if the britts had that building out plans too.
Exactly ! I am not sure what the "purpose" of this video is... it poses a problem and no real solution... and leaves the viewer to imply that Pakistan should not build more dams... so really a strange video
The problem seems to be bad engineering rather than over-engineering. Good governance could fix past mistakes if there were the political will to keep selfish interest groups in check.
Agreed, the final argument seems to follow the "appeal to nature" fallacy. Of course all groups should be consulted and listened to, but you shouldn't just discard the idea of engineering solutions.
I don't beleive it is bad engineering, it is a project almost 100 years old still standing and working fully. The problem here is corruption and decision-makers that do not care about who live there. Not to mention Politics and Bureaucracy. It is the government's fault what is happening.
monsoons are no joke either!
In this case, over-engineering seems to be an accurate description of the problem. Not unlike what the US has done to the bayou in Louisiana.
Pakistani politics is really unstable
No cilivian govt. has completed their full term yet in their 75yrs of history,
Military is too powerful who can throw civil govt. out whenever they want.
This videos appears to be conflating two separate issues, inequality of water access and engineering water pathways to capture more water. While the two have been historically linked, they don't have to be. You could still engineer the water pathways, and be more equitable with water distribution and access. The problem is that it appears that the engineering is necessary to support Pakistan's population. They can't just go back letting the rivers flow wherever nature takes them.
Also while damming up the rivers has reduced flow and allowed salt water to destroy previously farmable land, that has to be put into the context of how much more land was created that could support agriculture. My guess is that the latter is a lot more than the former. Again, there is the inequality issue of who gets the new land and who gets their land destroyed, but that's a separate issue that can be remedied while keeping the engineering.
I get your point, and it's a video that should be 25 minutes instead of 10, to fully convey this
@@VivekPatel-ze6jy Seriously, these people should have primarily consulted experienced water resource engineers and given secondary priority to environmental experts for this topic. The primary issue that caused the greatest amount of harm here is wrongful engineering meant to promote inequality started by a colonial government and then continued by the independent nation for the benefit of the Punjab region's ruling class to the detriment of overall economic prosperity and the wealth of the other provinces of Pakistan. There is a common thread of short-sighted disregard for the other regions of that nation for the benefit of Punjab by the ruling class, which, absolutely coincidentally, is dominated by wealthy politicians from Punjab. They could have made that a real point rather than a focus on "indigenous knowledge" that is already moot and largely lost due to the, as mentioned in the video, 150 year old legacy of Western water systems. The independent nation inherited very expensive and massively successful infrastructure from British rule which they could have easily redesigned to be far more resistant to floods, prevented ecological erosion, and reduce inequality. This could have been rather easily funded by the massive amounts of money that they gained from selling the cash crops that this system enables, if they hadn't squandered that money on corruption, terrorism and wars.
the video talks about historical usage and current problems and the bad colonial mindset of pakistan but offer zero solutions. this is the type of conversation id expect from a tea stand or a paan shop not cambridge university proffessor.
@@ibrahim-sj2cr There is no issue with pointing out a problem. The first step in solving a problem is identifying it. You don't have to know how to fix something to know something is wrong. The real issue is that by conflating engineering and inequality, they don't correctly identify the problem. The engineering might have some negative side effects, but was necessary. Either the dams were built or millions would have died. Complaining about the dams is like complaining about the invention of cars because of car crashes.
Btw the video does propose solutions. Specifically it says "preventing more development in floodplains" and "clearing out obstructions to drainage pathways" should be done. This is sound advice for the flooding issue, whose main cause is people living where it floods. Inequality on the other hand is a separate political issue. The dams magnified that problem, but are not the root cause of it. This video incorrectly makes it seem like they are the problem and were some kind of evil imposed on Pakistan. However the country couldn't support the 200+ million people today without them.
@@ibrahim-sj2cr This is a short-form video with stop-motion visuals to accompany what is being said. If you wanted a comprehensive overview of more potential solution, it'd be a lecture or an interview with a panel of experts that would be at least an hour long. Not to mention, if you wanted "the type of conversetion one expects from a Cambridge professor", you'd probably have to have at least some background in water resource engineering.
The video implies that the solution to Pakistan's water problems is to revert to pre-industrial agricultural and water control methods. This is all well and good if you're willing to accept a pre-industrial standard of living and population (as the video notes, pre-industrial pakistan's population was a 5th what it is today).
Switching to subsistence farming is not the only solution, They could instead invest in better and less corrupt water engineering. Most countries around the world have professional civil and hydro engineers who spend great effort to manage the water systems to prevent flooding and provide further irrigation, and in the vast majority of cases they are successful. The solution for Pakistan is to better manage their water resources and establish an apolitical body to maintain them. This has been the job of governments for millennia. I believe the scale of the damage Pakistan's floods have caused will provide sufficient political will to establish proper, professional, apolitical and holistic management of the country's rivers.
The woman is cheap to not recognise how those very canals is the reason Pakistan has 200 Million people.
'Exactly, ''b-b-but degrowth hurr durr'' this can only work for already wealthy global north countries, not for relatively poor/struggling global south countries...
@@xianxiaemperor1438 It would still be the same problem in any rich nation.
But acusing industrialism as the problem and saying that going back to indiginous solution would help is magical thinking. The problem would persist. The method she wants wouldent stop the tragedy of the commons to occur.
In rich nations as far as I know the only salution, has been either limit access and/or more common selling the access, neither of these solutions would favour the people who are poor.
@@clmBerserker yeah
I agree. The video makes a horrible point, implying that the irrigation system itself was the problem. What does VOX expect us to do? Do away with irrigation and water management systems? Also the cause of the flooding becoming worse was also due to not enough water management, not the other way round. VOX doesn't even discuss the lack of rainwater reservoirs which have become a big issue here . I don't understand the point of the video
Without talking about Indus water treaty this video is incomplete
Yeah, it's a completely Western idea to artificially redirect water. That's why the first known instances of irrigation took place in Iran, India and Mesopotamia.
It's not in ancient and mediaeval india. Rulers were used to make embankment,dams,lakes. Channels for flood water to irrigation. But this was not for selfish reason and was in limits. But britain exploited indian subcontinent's rivers to meet britain food demands because britain wasnt self sufficient in agriculture. This also lead to population boom in indian subcontinent
Yeah.. that comment that it is a „western“ idea sounds awefully racist. This idea was used by various cultures around the globe during humans history.. often flavoured with at least a hint of explotation. And britain is not there anymore. The initial system is bad as it was used for social engineering and exploitation back then.. but it was not them that expanded it and made the situation so bad that it created these situations now. If you want to blame the brits, make a seperate video about it, there are enough stories.
A blindspot in regards to exploitation in our days
And Egypt with the Nile!
Indian, Chinese, and Egyptian farmers and kings were building Channels and Reservoirs since ancient times.
It's just your problem that you guys are made to live in the Arabian desert.
@@AtharvaAgarwal Look up India's population figures as a proportion to world population. Historic India (meaning including Paxtan/Bangladesh) has almost always accounted for around 20% of global population.
Besides, more than enough suitable agricultural land existed along the Indo-Gangetic Plain for the U.K. to import all its grain needs. It was forcing to grow cotton and indigo, in fact, for raw materials for its mills in Manchester.
Problem is a calcified mindset. This is true in present day Indian Punjab area also-- farming landlords got too used to free water, free electricity, and high fixed prices for their produce without ever having to compete, to be efficient. The result is desertification and sinking of the water table, but still the "farmers" aren't waking up to smell the coffee. Populist governments are also to blame, including the current one in the state and at the centre.
If VOX thinks the traditional water management solutions are so awesome they should also provide some analysis on how this would affect total agricultural output. I'd guess it would lower, otherwise the british wouldn't have bothered with the canals. But it's easy to advertise traditionalist agricultural practices if you are not the one having to live with the results.
Why do you think the British got it right? They got quite a long wrong in a lot of places (e.g. country borders) so why couldn't this be wrong?
@@rhysduncan8676ritish had good technology, and helped improve agriculture. They messed with borders, but that’s different. The borders turned out bad because they grouped people together who didn’t like each other, spoke different languages, or practiced different religions. These weren’t always the cases, but that’s pretty much what happened to Africa. India and Pakistan are a different story
@@rhysduncan8676 that's a false dichotomy. You can be good at building irrigation and be pisspoor at dividing land at the same time.
And we know the irrigation worked because Britain turned the area into a cash cow while being a detriment to the local populace
@@lordofthepies there are a lot of things the British had done over the years and centuries. It had both positive and negative impacts on their colonies and across the world (in some extent), despite all the controversies and the colonial past (sadly, given how the reputation on the British government just went down, they just seen those as a joke these days).
@@rhysduncan8676 You are right Brits might not have gotten it right. Because in another video another colonial power also tried to build the Panama canal by digging Panamanian hills to sea level. But the more significant point he/she's trying to make is there are modern and nonintrusive methods now to solve this vs. building massive dams, which need not be traditional. because if "traditional" methods were so good why would anyone have attempted to change them?
It is important to note that there were no flooding issues during British rule with the fist major floods being in 1950, today's issue comes from Pakistan's mismanagement and poorly thought through expansion of the system.
but muh colonialism!
The water crisis is definitely a critical topic. Our crew analysed the current situation at the River Nile. Egyptian farmers along the River Nile banks have long relied on this legendary water source for their way of life. But now the river is drying up, turning the traditional way of life into a struggle. While more efficient irrigation and planting systems might be one solution, wider geopolitical issues are also affecting livelihoods all along the river. We're hoping to see positive solutions to the problematic water conflicts we're seeing nowadays.
I'm your 100th liker here & bye.
What does not seem to be clear is that if this "colonial" irrigation system was to be dismantled, would it not have severe repercussions of its own? I think this it is too simplistic to say it's the fault of colonial mindset or colonial practice or over-engineering. The solution probably lies somewhere between sustainable engineering solutions, enforcing flood management related plans and in my humble opinion most importantly arresting the mind-boggling growth of population in Pakistan.
I don’t think the video is proposing instant wholesale dismantling, but rather a slow reworking of the entire system. That doesn’t necessarily mean no canals, but it means having a different methodology
@@kaitlyn__L and what is that different methodology? Care to elaborate? I just heard alot of sound bites. Nothing concrete.
@@aatirehrarsiddiqui8894 I was staring at this like... "don't engineer the river" ...surely now is when we actually need to engineer the river
Isn't the problem just corruption and poor water cycle management? If artificial lanes are constructed to guide water back into the Indus River and wealthy landowners are restricted from cutting embankments, that should reduce downstream floods and level out water flow.
Of course there are external factors (I.e. shifting climate patterns due to climate change) so droughts may still increase, but this seems like the most straightforward solution to reduce their intensity.
Also Population Control sounds like a bad idea - I can't think of a single successful example that didn't involve catastrophic violence.
The answer is yeoman farming
Framing this as a problem of colonialism, that can only be solved with local/indigenous answers is a bit...odd. Engineering and science are absolutely what is needed. Evidence-based solutions.
local/indigenous answers won't feed and employ 120 million people
Except the implication does really say that? It says water should be manage *like* with indigenous techniques, divereting floodwater rather than perenial water. Not that 100% indigeenous solutions should be used.
i laughed and then cried when i read evidence based solutions. Trust me, there is no person competent enough in our government to make up evidence-based solutions, they're too busy in doing their own politics and corrupting the system. We're just going by. Only just and i dont know how
@@beerenmusli8220 Even that would drastically reduce agricultural productivity and lead to an over-dependence on food imports or regular famines.
@@veggiedisease123 And you say that based on which Data, exactly?
In 2012, like many years, there were also massive floods. We were driving through the area. The roads are embankments, they are the high point. So lots of poor people who lost everything were just sitting there on the roads. It was heart-wrenching to see. As far as you could look there was water.
I love how the thesis for this video is Pakistans water policies are a continuation of colonialism and the experts you interview on this reside in the uk
Ever heard of brain drain?
As a Pakistani, who understands this issue and the politics involved, I find this documentary mostly wrong. Don't have time to correct all the info but for a start, the key reason for building Dams and Barrages is that Indus river gets its water from Glacier ice melting. This happens in late spring, summer and early autumn, so Dams and barrages help store massive amount of fresh water that is needed for agriculture and people, throughout the year. If it weren't for the dams/barrages then Indus river would be dry during periods of no glacier ice melting (i.e. many months)
Thank you for sharing this!
Pfff, as if they're gonna listen to you. In their minds, anything that came out of countries that have been at some point in history colonial powers is wrong. So, while they live in Europe or houses with very Western-commodities, the rest of the Pakistani, the Indians, the Kenyans, the Indonesians, the Peruvians... can easily starve waiting for their scifi solutions.
Anticolonialism yay, but for them? Nay
That was alll mentioned in the video. It explained that the dams and barrages allowed people to access water more easily, but created problems that were described in the video.
Then why is the country suffering so much more with the man made dams than before?
We can argue about the causes here all day yet the results are still happening and will continue to ruin Pakistan. 😞
You're getting the problem wrong as well, while barrages and dams help irrigate the upper regions of the country. The blockage of the free flow of the water means that the indus river delta is drying up and saltwater is moving upwards in the country and the lower areas are drying/turning saline basically. We also need to start thinking about proper drainage and water flow that doesn't affect the ground water chemistry. Basically you can't be greedy and store all the water
As one wise man said, "Pakistan is not a poor country, it's a highly mismanaged country.."
True
Srrsly underrated comment
As an Indian i agree with this statement. When we both got independence, Pakistan had higher GDP , higher literacy rate , greater agricultural productivity....
But the path of military rule , communalism, radicalisation destroyed your bright future.
I agree democracy has numerous flaws but in the end we are able to change governments that we like.
@@jaybendre7906 Communalism is more rampant under Modi, we’re headed in the right direction in that regard … India isn’t.
I won't say mismanaged, but it runs on sentiments rather than logic, and sentiments don't have synergy in them.This is the main reason why the general public got played every time by their leaders. 90% pakistani thinks kashmir as their primary issue rather than their internal turmoils. They have wasted every global platform presence until now, in the name of kashmir, instead of highlighting the crisis the country is facing. In davos Economic forumn where every country reps were highlighting the growth opportunities in their country and seeking for investments , pak fm's main objective was still kashmir. By this, who will take them seriously .
I'm Pakistani Canadian but I feel like you should stop blaming British Colonialism for all the problems smh
A fairly bizarre take. The lack of gratitude toward the hard working souls that created these systems is Jarring. Hopefully this type of story telling has an expiry date, and we can get back to appreciating progress for the blessing that it actually is.
It's sad to see the once so-called "largest canal irrigation system" go down the drain all due to lack of long term planning by the government.
i see what you did there
Throwing the baby out with the bath water, I may add.
Endian ☕
@@qurratulainzehra8760 what that really is a issue pakistan need to evolve
@@qurratulainzehra8760 P3doworshipper 🛐🛐🤲🤲
framing this as a "colonialist mindset" problem is the absolute worst take possible
It's Vox, do you expect them to actually have decent takes?
they have proofs!
Easier to point fingers rather than admit you are the problem.
It's so weird, right? The "colonial mindset" allowed Pakistan to grow massively and feed millions and millions more people. And then post-colonial mismanagement and bad engineer is somehow the ex-colonists fault?
They essentially inherited infrastructure that otherwise would not have existed for at least another 50 years.
Being a Pakistani and also part of Govt. Irrigation department I think this video covers only half a truth.
The land irrigated by this system is livelihood of hundreds of millions of people ,apart from politics and governance issues this system needed upgradation which is not possible due to lack of funds,the floods are result of unusual climate change and encroachments along river basins, and at some places due to inadequate drainage facilities.
They don't want send the water to Sindh region but expecting india to send water
If VOX really wanted to understand the issues, they would have interviewed a Hydrologist. You wouldn't do a story about heart attacks without interviewing a cardiologist right?
The conclusion being "you need to listen to indigenous ways of management" is a bit intellectually insulting. All those people still need farmland to grow food and sustain a population, you can't just "go back".
@Zaydan Alfariz aren you sure you have the right video?
@Zaydan Alfariz You just had to find a way to talk about indonesia hmm
@Richard Agreed. British gov only started to build a few.
Then the independent Pakistan gov kept building more like carzy. 6:02
Whatever measure, indigenious or modern, will break when it is taken to the extreme..
@Zaydan Alfariz I mean Pak unis discredit themselves. UK unis are world class, let's not compare them.
Bangladesh has worst case river related scenario than Pakistan. But Bangladesh took the matter in it's own hand and started fixing it's problem one by one instead of blaming British for something which happened 70 to 150 years ago.
For how long Pakistan going to blame their colonial past?
You need a stable government,freedom and money pakistan doesnt have any and this flood is certainly not helping
Can you explain how Bangladesh fixed the problem?
The average Pakistani doesn’t blame the British for this but corruption and mismanagement. Vox is blaming the British
The thing is, punjab controls pakistan, it doesn't care for other provinces, be it get flooded or drain their water ways, if its happy, that's about it.
Good thing you guys got out when you could.
@@cometmoon4485 UN intervention. I remember a decade or so ago Bangladesh and Maldives were always being mentioned in need of funding and projects to correct the situation. Bangladesh is being flooded! Maldives will sink in 10 years! Catchy slogans diverted US taxpayer dollars into subsidizing NGO’s to fix the issue, but in reality ‘fixing’ had lest to do with correcting the problem and more to do with gaining leverage over government. Read ‘Confessions of an Economic Hitman’ for reference.
I own around 92 acres of agricultural land in Sindh, 32 acres in the thatha district which is where the Indus flows to the sea. We have some very serious problems and majority is related to water. There is a canal that is right next to 22 acres of my land but I feel a big issue there is sharing water. Because my land is downstream by the time it reaches my land there isnt any left and every year a portion of my crops are destroyed. If the upstream farmers dont waste as much as they do we could all have enough water. The ground water is incredibly saltish as sea water seeps (usually around 7500 DTS, crops can not grow in DTS above a 1000) so thats pretty useless for me. Ive tried my best to negotiate with the irrigation department and have them divert more water towards my land but all theyre interested in is bribes... Its nothing less than a disaster
These engineering project certainly helped the communities grow... there was certainly greater benefit in them. These projects certainly come with risk involved, we see the effect today. What seems to be overlooked was the constant monitoring of these rivers, to see if they may cause problems ahead, and could be rectified easily.
I’m Pakistani and when it comes to this the main issue is corruption, mismanagement, discrimination and a load of other issues blaming the British isn’t the solution. Yeah the British are responsible for several issues Pakistan faces like the Kashmir dispute and modern day western intervention in Pakistan like the US meddling in Pakistani affairs is a issue. The old irrigation systems won’t be able to feed Pakistans 220 million people. With better management this issue can become a lesser risk. Many areas face issue with water like the western US just recently in California lots of storms caused flooding in a usually dry area but due to better management the impact wasn’t as bad as the floods in Pakistan.
No one's blaming the British, but not acknowledging the problem from where its coming from is also an issue. The dams are a british legacy, we personally don't know at all what else to do with the water. This is the same problem we keep facing with other countless issues we're trying to resolve. We don't like acknowledging that we were colonised for a long time and our personal relationship with the system that we're living in is that of a aaqa vs ghulam. We need to acknowledge that the mindset of our ruling class is conquering our own homeland rather learning to live with it. And the fact we still have a ruling class, our growth is stunted, we need to start acknowledging that we were colonised and conquered countless and learn to start the ways it affected our social policies and environment in a different way than ours. We can't a set a direction for ourselves if we don't know which way we're facing
@@dundundun7215 I agree with you brother Pakistan had lots of problems and it’s mainly due to the corruption, but I think even worse is the discrimination based on ethnic lines the quota system in Pakistan only benefits those in the majority in Punjab that’s Punjabi, in Sindh it’s Sindhi in KPK it’s Pathans. There’s a reason the Bangali left Pakistan and it was due to racism. Pakistan is able to feed its 220 million people due to conquering the Indus. So the current system of dams and canals is really important. To better this issue we need better infrastructure, better management and so much more can’t go back to the pre colonial agricultural system
Kashmir is in their DNA 😂
@@umaryusuf537 able to feed seriously there is no food in Pakistan
Priority is to convert hindu and sikh in pak that is V imp water is boon of Allah [pubh] after few years it will come back.
This is rather one-sided video. Prior to the canal system, massive famines killing many hundreds of thousands, even millions, happened routinely for centuries. Yes, there are some negatives, but the canal system both saved millions of lives and played a huge part in enabling Pakistan to become the huge and relatively prosperous country it is today.
Ignoring that side of things is less than I expect from quality journalism like Vox.
What did you say?
Pakistan is a relatively prosperous country 😂😂😂😂
@@seedhasaadabhartiya3312 Relative to their good friends over the border in Afghanistan, yes.
Didn't you watch the video? Colonialism is THE cause for all these problems. Why have a serious discussion when there's a cheap and easy target on the table.
@@seedhasaadabhartiya3312 yes Pakistan has developed lot over the years.
What’s funny is the show a graph of massive population increases and then never address the issue that there would not have been this population if the water infrastructure was not there. Everyone just eats up oh it’s colonialism and the lady tries to make it like she knows there’s ancient secret knowledge that we refuse to look at…. Perhaps make better drainage so pakistan can maintain its population? Unless what’s she’s saying is she was Pakistan to go back to its population 150 years ago…
Can we appreciate how beautiful the stop motion throughout this video is? 👏👏
I did appreciate it.
But video spend too much time on blaming the British past and too little time on engineering trade-offs.
AA thooo..
Yes we can!
When the British Raj established direct British rule, the area that is now Pakistan had a population of 15 million.
By 1947, it was 34 million.
Now, it's 230 million
By 2100, it will be 475 million.
Natural water management strategies that worked for 15 million (with a life expectancy of less than 26 years) will not work for a population of nearly half a billion people with a life expectancy 3 times as long. Not to mention the fact that hydro power currently provides 25% of Pakistan's electricity.
It is easy for these academics (comfortably sat in London) to label Pakistan's wish to use hard engineering solutions to try and meet this challenge as 'continuing the colonial mindset' rather than offering viable alternatives, or telling us what the human cost would be to dismantling the infrastructure.
From where I'm sat, it isn't simply a case of 'continuing the colonial mindset', but it is about meeting the needs of hundreds of millions of people who deserve water, electricity, and prosperity. The issue (imo) is how any infrastructure can increase inequalities or lead to direct suffering of some, and that these should be managed to maximimse the benefits for all Pakistanis.
I am also indian and ya the British did bad thing it's about time people and politicians stop use them as an excuse of their incompitance and also this is not colonial mindset but industrial mindset and the first industrial countries just happened to be the colonial countries.. ...... 🧐😒😒
Exactly! The Brits have been gone for 75 years yet they are blamed for everything.
I thought it was interesting that large infrastructure projects were framed as a "western" concept, rather than just a "developed industrial nation" concept. Seemed very condescending.
its vox mindset pakistan not blaming british for it
@@ameerabdullah1129 Mabe but post colonial politicians do that
Thank you so so much for this extremely reasonable comment- I agree that the British did some terrible things, but it is definitely time to at least slightly move on and stop using it as an excuse for current incompetence.
Countries like Pakistan have a habit of lumping all their failures into their colonial past, when in reality things are a lot more nuanced. Regarding these water systems in Pakistan, yes the British did indeed built these, but at that time it made sense. It improved productivity of lands, added to food security, and helped sustain a growing population. However, it was never meant to be stretched beyond its limits. Once Pakistan gained independence, it never sought to keep a lid on its population or introduce sustainable water usage practices. The country has never shown a trace of good policymaking or governance, and the results are now catastrophic as we can see. Outsourcing the blame everytime is just ignorant.
Decades, literally half a century and it's still the colonials fault. Lets wait for another century and it's still the fault of the colonials. Perhaps after a millenia and then they will start to take responsibility for their own lives. Until then, ALL the bad things are because of the colonials. All of them, without an exception.
This is such an ignorant way to look at it.
People love to hate. But pointing fingers at oneself can be rather embarrassing.
@@CaptainCaterpillars I mean pakistan has been a disaster since independence by most metrics so i am not surprised
@@CaptainCaterpillars That is such a strong argument, that totally has a contribution.
Y'all continue to amaze with these physical diagrams and illustrations. They are spectacular!
Recently Indian govt has sent letter to Islamabad to talk about the Indus water treaty 1960.
A lot of major development will be seen on this topic.
Yes. Pakistan is about to lose on that front too.
@@JohnAdams-vd5dc today a bomb blast in Peshawar Pakistan killed around 50 people.
Hahaha
Keep dreaming endia.. only if Pakistan accepts it.
🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰
Yes , because they are preventing making of dams in Kashmir
2:05 so glad someone has highlighted this with actual 3D topographical representations, was on my list of projects but Kudos to the vox team who have done an excellent job 🏆
Thanks for spending the time to create and share this content awareness 🙏🏾
The mission point here is that if you are going to un-over engineer the river first you must find something else for 100,000,000 people lto do for a living and find food for them on the international market.
Colonial mindset? The british only built one or two barrages, it was the Pakistani's who built over 50+...
Ok and they started it
Except that the colonial mindset is still thriving. The modern India and Pakistani legal codes were compiled decades before either was a separate or independent nation. And when independence did come the new ruling elites were content with the economic status quo the British had built, and simply promoted themselves into the commercial and government jobs and roles that had depended upon or built that status quo.
In economics this is called Path Dependence, which is built upon the theory that it is far easier to maintain existing economic and sociological infrastructure- in spite of their glaring shortcomings or limitations- than to switch to a newer and improved system that has to be built from scratch. In most cases of modern countries that emerged from European colonialism, the previous colonial rulers had built most of their physical existence from borders to the ruling social structure to government administration to the main export industries prior to independence. And since path dependence is very difficult even for prosperous developed countries to break, there was little chance that poorer former colonies would deviate from these established systems. And this included patterns of neglect, corruption and social cupidity usually traceable to the former colonists themselves, passed down to the new rulers.
What about Punjab India? This region is also severely effected. That is a huge part of this which wasn’t mentioned. Indian government has a huge role in this problem too.
Sad. Punjab will become a desert now.
Our people are being erased.
First of all, Thank You the team which created this video. Really we are indebted to you. Here in Pakistan institutions and responsible authorities and people don't pay attention to real problems. I'm glad that your channel highlighted this issue.
Secondly, Kindly make a video about possible solutions. Pakistan's population is growing exponentially. Really it's a mess. The rivers are our lifeline. Dams create cheap electricity. By the way currently the rate of electric current is too expensive for middle class. Thus there is greater focus on building new dams so cheap electricity can be produced. Water scarcity is scary. I'm sad to inform that authorities are not paying attention.
Very informative but the opinions of the professors highlighted in this are very ignorant. The conditions of the modern world make it literally impossible to "just listen to indigenous knowledge instead of fixing the problem with modern engineering". Did they miss the part where agriculture employs 50% of the country? Or maybe the part about how the population of Pakistan has boomed exponentially since these changes were made, and this increase in agriculture is helping prevent starvation? If anything the recent global pandemic has shown how fragile international food supply lines can be and how nations should be encouraging domestic food production, not looking for ways to reduce it.
i think what they mean is that pakistan should consider adapting some of the techniques of their indigenous into their modern system. it doesnt mean going from one extreme to another. it means being able to find a balance so that the people who rely on the indus river can have a long term solution for their water needs as the indigenous found out how to do it hundreds of years before the british came. the point is, is that their industrialist mindset is informed by people who either dont know, or care about the issue at hand and how to solve them. thats why they want to turn to indigenous methods for ideas as they have managed their water well for a logn time before.
Exactly, and blame 150 year old infrastructure instead of over population and the current corrupt government. Meanwhile South Korea got their independence only 50 years ago and are a first world nation. The whole rhetoric of blaming everything in south Asia on the British is really counter productive and gives a scapegoat to current governments.
and to think those 2 useless eaters are some "professors" earning probably 6 figure salary in some university in the west. puke
At what point does Pakistan get blamed for its own problems and not the British. Pakistan has had independence for quite a while now and you're making this video telling me that it's Britain's fault that Pakistan can't control it's irrigation? How about they take responsibility and stop blaming others for their problems
do you really think corrupt government officials living in their mansions with expensive shoes are actually going to blame themselves for anything in pakistan lol? come to pakistan everyone is suffering bc of these excuses of "leaders"
Yes. It IS Britain’s fault no matter whatever you say!
The point is Britain left the subcontinent decades ago, and now fixing it is Pakistan’s responsibility, something that Pakistan is doing incompetently and inefficiently.
A similar story is playing out where I live. Wetlands "reclaimed" for farming. Extremely severe drought and little tolerance for rainfall
6:00 Pakistan won independence... 😂😂
Best Joke... 👌👌
vox: let talk about the issue
me: oh okay let hear it
vox: it all change when the British attacked
me: oh god not again...
You literally can't talk about modern Indian history without talking about the British. They ruled the area for 100 years, and more importantly for the 100 years in which the industrial revolution took place
@@cenci4913 sure it may have ruled for 100 yrs but already 75 years have passed. That’s 3 generations. That’s enough time to work things through
@@lolatiffhur not how history works. Ramifications usually are felt for a few centuries for any major event. See, WW1, or the American and French Revolutions. 75 years is actually a remarkably short time for the fabric of power to change
@@lolatiffhur there's a catch. When British ruled, it was more or less a single entity under the name British India, but now it's India & Pakistan (while Indus is concerned) & last 75 years of history is full of 1947, 65, 71, 99 etc.
@@cenci4913 Yeah, but the conveniently ignored that Pakistan opposes India building more dams, which could reduce flooding because that would help Indians.
I mean if the population of a country grows fivefold and the water supply remains the same it makes sense that the water availability per capita will drop proportionately, it is simple math.
No, Pakistan could have made hundreds of dams and reservoirs to increase its per capita water availability.....
@@FahadFSA So x-amount of rain falls a year and you think all of it should be locked up in dams?
@@markusgorelli5278 look up videos of the August 2022 flood, that's the "x-amount" that needs to be locked by so it doesn't destroy the country.....
@@FahadFSA Yes this is a solution, but if not implemented, as is in this case, then the per capita value will drop. Also, I hate it how the video focuses too much on the British colonizers. Pakistan has been an independent country for more than 50 years, so it is their fault that this problem exists.
They are breeding like animals.
Awesome job with stop motion and dissemination of complex topic into easier one
Can anyone tell me what that leel synth Steve makes all the special noises with is called?
Pakistan mentioned.
Indians : Allow us to introduce ourselves.
Afterall those are our children....They are part of us😂
we care for our son , even if it is unwanted.
We love our bast*** child too ( conve**** out of hindu to become a Muslim nAtion)
Father never forget his child even though his child is notorious.
Indus flows through India first then it's reaches pakistan
I laughed so hard at 'post colonial Pakistan'
Was there a 'pre colonial' one?😂😂
was there a pre-colonial "hInDuStAn"? xDDDDDDDDDDD
@@FahadFSA maratha Empire was called hindvi swaraj
@@FahadFSA What did Mughal emperors call themselves in the title? Padishah of Hindustan right? Didn’t even Timur want to invade Hindustan? So yeah pre colonial Hindustan existed, named that way by Muslims in fact
@@03.achyuthans39 says the people who changing names of Mughal Parks xDDDD
@@FahadFSA Haan humne name change kiye tuje Kia tu apne liye aata aur electricity ka intezam kar gawar
Important history our policy makers and infrastructure managers should pay attention to. Rivers are also built to grow vegetation. In our world we focus our attention on flood control when we should be focused on high flow diversion for agricultural and bioremediation uses. Spot on Vox! Thank you for speaking truth and for putting a spotlight on these scholars.
The problems shown in this video weren't caused by "over" engineering, just bad engineering. Water being unable to find its way back to the indus means there wasn't enough drainage. Rivers flooding means there isn't enough reservoir capacity to hold the floodwaters. Seawater coming back up the river means the dams were managed improperly. If engineering the river somehow inherently causes these problems, it wasn't communicated properly.
Why is Vox implying that the solution to bad engineering is to stop all the engineering? Wouldn't that ruin all the farmland that was created by the canal network?
It's the fault of government of pakistan. British did what any other colonial power would have done. It's the government of pakistan who still gives land to powerful govt servants by giving them prime land like patronage. What colonial power gave away was about 1/3rd of total hence most of is given by the Pakistani government
Bro in India we are also doing the same thing in Punjab, Haryana and U.P. You can see the impact of that in Punjab they are now facing droughts.
So… over all the effect was positive. Boosted the population many times over. Inequality in water management isn’t good, but still, they benefited from it.
4:39 blaming the british despite the fact that Pakistan's water availability was highest in 1950 (just 3 years after independence). Water was better managed during colonial times.
These issues have been created by the local government, and yet you're blindly blaming the british. Been 75 year since independence. If 75 years aint enough, 750 aint either.
Their feelings don't care about your facts.
I absolutely enjoyed the model and its animation. Well done!
Why does it sound like she want to get rid of the modern engineering? Sure the flooding wouldn’t be as bad then, but there would also be a lot less farmland right? Shouldn’t they instead engineer it better?
The canal building transformed the demographics and politics of this region. West Pakistan and now Pakistan may not even exist without these canals. The dominance of the feudal land owners and army elite who enjoyed British patronage made sure that democracy does not take a deep roots here. Indus river basin went from supporting a thin population to over 230Mil today. And now the cumulative ecological, economic and political consequences are showing. Thanks for an excellent explanation.
Awesome video but how did you make a part of the indus River with farmlands embankments etc plz rep it would help out
The system is designed for irrigation, not for drainage. That's its main technical flaw.
A large channel like Vox couldn't interview or even consult a hydrologist when making a video about canals?
Interesting, beautiful video completely ruined by some weird fetishization of traditional knowledge and blame shifting. You should've interviewed a hydrologist.
Yeah, the massive child mortality and regular famines that were brought about before colonisation by folowing traditional knowledge don't seem to be an issue for them. Tells you a lot about their extremely lacking knowledge of that period or their view of humans. I hope it's just ignorance but I wouldn't be so sure that someone could do the research that was required for this video without being(or becoming) aware of the results that were obtained by following traditional knowledge. Concerning.
@@Monaleenian 🤣yet the regular famines were more frequent during the British rule than any other pre colonial rule.
Thank you for explaining why the monsoon floods in Pakistan have been so much worse than the monsoon floods in India since 2005 or so. I was wondering if it was because Pakistan was just getting far more torrential rains during the monsoons. But if that were the case, India would be equally affected. But almost never hear of India suffering these floods (though Bangladesh does, every year, because it's in the Ganges River delta). When you mess around with the flows nature has set out, you will get disaster more often than not.
Wes Anderson would be proud of the model you made
if only Pakistani authorities were smart enough themselves and really cared about the public the floods would not have been so disastrous
Bro, you're spitting facts.
They only care for Punjab province
Yeah and u would stop climate change right?
@@naintarabatool1150
Your mom will do it
Now recently, india give notice to pak for modification of indus water treaty. Now, i think they will not need canal to distribute excess water....😂😂😂
Nepal can sell water to whole world but India is getting it free and still stealing border area of Nepal and former area like sikkim Tista Darjeeling etc....one day India will have to payback.
One of the best yet short and concise coverage on this topic. I left with more than when I entered. Thanks!
So the British left in 1947 and the main canal was finished in 1987...the British have been gone for 76 years. Sounds like the Pakistani people and by extension it's government are happy with the system or they would have removed it. I'm not sure anyone can blame British engineers for this 76 years later and also many canal projects later.
I know Indians blaming the British for railways riding British built lines and then getting down on British built railway stations.
"When Pakistan won independence".... The word "won" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
What does this mean? Surely it's a good thing to get independence? How is it not a win?
@@Eoaiyer21987rhei he's an Indian so he's bound to say that and he's also acting like India didn't gain independence
@@Eoaiyer21987rhei He’s saying, India essentially gave away the freedom to Pakistan or rather, both the countries “shared their freedom” and parted. It was amicable.
@@Eoaiyer21987rhei Because Pakistan didn't fight for independence it was created by dividing India on a religious basis
@@akashsrivastava7895 my understanding is that the partition was an idea of people from the Indian subcontinent, not a thing the British particularly wanted.
You can tell she's a native because she says "BOK-istan" instead of "Phhhæk-uh-stæn" like an American.
Pakistan did not win INDEPENDANCE,
Pakistan came into existence after the PARTITION OF INDIA.
Keep your basics clear.
Pakistan was always different from india
@@hke.4475 the word "pakistan" itself was first used in 1920s. The word "India" was first used in 300 BCE by the Greeks
@@hke.4475 in what ways ? Bengalis are bengalis punjabis are punjabis sindhis are sindhis pathans are pathans.
in feb1947 British declare to give independence to India
in June 1947 , it was decided to partition india into two part
on 15 august 1947 , British sign the independence documents
Maybe the old ways were better, definitely more sustainable, however, you can't turn back time.
There are now 230 million people living in Pakistan. Going back to agropastoral farming can't sustain that population. I don't have a solution and I assume the people advocating for "indigenous knowledge systems" are aware of this. Pakistan is in need of a robust long-term water management plan, but I'm really afraid ideologies and politics are going to get in the way of a sensible solution.
Pakistan can't manage their country
220M+ can't manage their country
It must be Britsh fault
yeah Pakistan has a incompetent government, but that's a bad take. with low literacy rates, rising geographical and economic difficulties, ignorant government etc, its the same logic as saying "the extremely poor can help themselves".
if you're so keen on saying that this is on the Pakistani population and the British have no accountability here, then tell me the solution.
Well they also blamed India for the floods they said India released water from their side dams that's why they are getting floods in the river.
@@Rishi6901 really..? why do you lot confuse people with political leaders?
and who ever said that in the video?
1:44 Unrelated to the topic, but I had to replay this stop-motion scene a few times. Got a real kick out of that. Thank-you for these videos.
what a great content. I had to rewatch it 3 times to really understand...
Kudos to Vox team for explaining it so beautifully. Loved the 3D modelling used to explain the situation. 👌
huh that amateur child project?
@@Vanguardkl yes
@@Vanguardkl taught the child in me
What about irrigation? and taking everyone along with you? As if it is something that is possible in a big country. Yes human engineering has caused floods and calamities sometimes, but it also enabled more people to live on this planet.
Though Indus is in Pakistan..But it's very pious for us Indians and the mother river has blessed our civilization..Our culture, our heritage Indus❤️🙏
Aka Sindhu
@@themastermind8847 kashmir is Indian you focus on Balochistan
@The Master mind , You focus on being global leader in terrorism and militancy.
@The Master mind it starts in the Himalayas which are the traditional northern limit of the “Indian” subcontinent… formed by the “Indian” Plate. Guess your people should focus more on electing proper representatives who don’t cause floods in the neighbouring province rather than focusing on terminology. It’s not enough if you get independence. Atleast try to make it work
@The Master mind madrschap
Does the water standing for months on end, not recharge ground water in water scarce lands!?
P. S i know flood management is important but would this flood situation benefit the water scarce places in any way?
Whats the way forward? I didnt catch any credible solution... Can anyone suggest some practical steps?
It doesn’t sound like the canals are the problem here. It sounds like climate change causing massive monsoons are causing these floods. On the contrary, the canals seem like a massive benefit.
Exactly, Vox didn't give much proof.
But Vox couldn't figure out a way to blame the monsoons on the Brits.
This was ignorant.
This was Vox!
If the government added 18 new barrages between 1960-1990 and there are 19 now does that mean there was a time with more and they have been removed? Or was there only one before that date?
Video starts:
British...
Me: got it !!
What the vox does not realise is that if the British had not built the Canal system that region would not be able to support even half the population that it can today. Which means mass starvation.
Building sophisticated canal systems is actually one of the more positive legacies of British rule
Control rivers, irrigate land, grow crops and feed people. That sound terrible, we should let the people starve.
exactly my point.....I am Pakistani we are 5th largest population .....what we do stave?
@@maqsoodahmadawan9065 You need sustainable growth, not uncontrolled because it is not practical long term. Your ppl have a very short sighted view which is why you suffer and will continue to do so.
@Zaydan Alfariz California has money pak dosen't
The climate of Indus river basin resembles a lot like river Nile
Water crisis is the most pressing issue we are facing today. It's 2023 and a lrage number of households dont have access to clean drinking water. On top of that, those who control government don't seem to be serious about this problem.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas! Will continue watching and recommending your channel, you’re doing a great job!
Thanks for highlighting why some of the flooding happened in Pakistan. All I heard was historic rain, not poor water management
This *poor water management was fuelled by massive corruption*
Pakistan has huge corruption problem from *Army to Politicians*
Like least *developed African countries it hosts some of the Worlds richest Politicians and Military Generals*
How can a Military General can become billionaire after retiring …? In Pakistan they can
poor water management aside, it was an unprecedented rain.
You can never be enough prepared for unprecedented and unforeseen calamities.
Natural Calamities are unavoidable. But Pakistan's government itself is not stable one. Its very difficult to settle the chain of problems which has been going on for decades.
big enough water planes can even lead to some rains, if significant water vapor is generated
I'm sorry, you can't say that this colonial mindset created this water system and increased the population fivefold is bad because the resulting population increase is overburdening the ecosystem.
Monsoons are the support system of Pakistan's agriculture. And monsoon is not just a rainy, stormy weekend, it stays for a while and it ultimately fills our water reservoirs. As far as its catastrophic effects are concerned, it is nothing as compared to large scale droughts and famine if such irrigation system had not been developed. Such intense monsoon rains occur in a decade but this irrigation system feeds the country throughout the year.
What a correct observation
Loved the stop motion animation in this. ❤️