After the widespread destruction wreaked by the 2010 floods in Pakistan, it took the government five years to devise a comprehensive national flood protection plan. This ten-year plan envisioned several new infrastructural interventions including the construction of more embankments, dikes, spurs, retaining walls and diversion channels. This plan also identified the need to improve the largely neglected national drainage infrastructure. Many of these ambitious plans, however, remained confined to paper.

The massive devastation caused by the 2022 floods again prodded policymakers to reiterate the need for Integrated Flood Risk Management, which proposed pursuing a blend of 'hard' infrastructure and more nature-based solutions to minimise flood damages. Yet, the lack of attention paid to implementing such a holistic strategy was again evident given the havoc wreaked by the current monsoonal floods.

It is time for our policy planners and implementers to take the need for flood........

© The Express Tribune