akistan is a land carved by rivers, yet today it faces severe drinking water shortages. The waters that once sustained civilisations along the Indus now tell a tale of neglect, corruption and betrayal.

River floods are not a novel challenge. For over five thousand years, the rivers of the Indus Basin have swelled and receded. In the age of satellite imagery and armed with scientific advance, the state should not appear so helpless.

The Federal Flood Commission and Irrigation Departments, tasked with protection, have failed year after year. When the waters rise houses collapse, fields vanish and lives are lost, not always because the challenge is unprecedented but because of poor governance. Flood losses are not mere natural disasters; they also reflect our institutional failures.

Look at Rawal Dam. The lake that once supplied drinking water to Rawalpindi city and cantonment, has been reduced to a monumental disaster.

During the British Raj, the forests that form the lake’s watershed were protected. The authorities realised that clean water begins with healthy forests. The waters feeding the Northern Command Headquarters, today’s GHQ in Rawalpindi, were safeguarded with vigilance. The forest canopy shielded the soil and sustained the flow.

Today, the guardianship has been replaced by greed. Banigala, once a green forest, has been turned into a cluster of villas for the elite. Politicians, bureaucrats and influential elite have built homes on the very edge of Rawal Lake, delighting in the view of its shimmering surface and quietly discharging their sewage into it.

The cancer........

© The News on Sunday