Essay by Eric Worrall
Climate Reparations Required? According to the World Economic Forum, the Sukkur Barrage, a British built diversion dam which unexpectedly withstood the recent floods and saved lives, despite decades of neglect, is a scar of Pakistan’s colonial past.
What does colonialism have to do with climate change?
Sep 9, 2022
John Letzing
Digital Editor, Strategic Intelligence, World Economic ForumMinji Sung
Data Visuals and Content Specialist, Strategic Intelligence, World Economic ForumFlooding in Pakistan has revived interest in the relationship between the colonial past and the present climate crisis.
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When flooding amplified by climate change began to submerge nearly a third of Pakistan recently, a remnant of the country’s colonial past stood between the deluge and hundreds of thousands of people: the Sukkur Barrage.
It wasn’t certain that the 90-year-old diversion dam, a onetime engineering triumph designed by local British rulers but since cited for safety issues and described as “decrepit”, would endure – making it a potentially fatal burden and a symbol of the corrosive impact of colonialism on much of the world.
The dam held, despite Pakistan’s “monsoon on steroids”. Other outcomes have been less fortunate. A German non-profit’s list of the 10 countries most affected by climate change-related extreme weather events during the first two decades of this century includes eight former colonies (one isn’t technically a country, and remains a US territory sometimes described as a colony).
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The British Raj, which included present-day Pakistan, is far from the only historical example of an exploitative colonial presence.
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One means of addressing the disparity might be through reparations.
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Read more: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/09/colonialism-climate-change-pakistan-floods/
Given the dam was built 90 years ago, and it has been 75 years since the fall of the British Raj, I suggest it is probably time for the Pakistan government to pick up the tab for flood management, and do their own dam building and repairs.
What’s Urdu for get f****d?
Sad to say, but when you build large parts of a country on a flood plain, you have to expect………
I tried to understand the argument. It seems to be that IF the dam had broken THEN that would have been colonialism murdering natives, but it didn’t, so instead the oppressed natives are living under the threat of being killed if/when it does break.
And if my uncle had been female he would have been my aunt.
I suspect it had to be hastily re-written after the dam unexpected held…
If they are that worried about it, once the flood waters recede, they should remove it.
Of course, then it will go back to flooding that highly populated region EVERY year.
These writers at WEF are crazy. This entire article is complete loony tunes. I looked up this John Letzing, the prime author, only to see a page of insane rhetoric at the WEF site. On his WEF page is an article entitled Systemic Racism “Why Juneteenth matters everywhere in the world” He doesn’t even know history. Juneteenth is a Texas remembrance of when Union forces arrived in Galveston to announce the 2 1/2 year old Emancipation Proclamation. Texans have recognized this for many decades. Only very recently, the U.S. Congress decided to make it a national holiday (isn’t that what the “woke” call “cultural appropriation?). Other states learned the news at other times. Only Texans historically celebrate Juneteenth, because it memorializes an event that occurred in Texas.
In this article, Letzing talks about U.S. “colonies,” actually territories, where people are U.S. citizens, Puerto Rico in particular, which was for centuries a Spanish colony. When acquired by the U.S. in 1898, a long slow and ragged process of development and increased self-governance began. Most recently, a large Puerto Rican majority voted in favor of statehood in a non-binding referendum. That doesn’t sound like an oppressed colony to most people. In today’s political environment, it just may not warrant statehood. Status quo or independence would appear more appropriate. Likewise, for different reasons, the District of Columbia does not warrant statehood. It is a tiny little federal district designed to just encompass Washington. Our smallest state, Rhode Island, is 1,545 square miles, while D.C. is a measly 100 sq.mi. Any current rumblings about statehood are purely power plays, left-wing Democrats ploys to add extra U.S. senators, who they presume will be Democrats, thus helping to solidify power. Open borders, expand the Supreme Court, eliminate the filibuster, politicizing the FBI and DOJ… the list of leftist power plays goes on.
DC is not even a full 100 sq miles. It started out as a 10 mile by 10 mile square diamond, roughly bisected by the Potomac, half in VA and half in MA. In 1847, the VA side reverted to the state. DC is now under 69 sq miles.
Everybody in the sub-continent, Pakistani, Indian, Bengali, whatever, is always happy to explain to you how every problem was created by the British. Even the caste system, which geneticists have proven goes back 2000 years. It may well be the case that their inability to accept responsibility for their problems is the biggest impediment to solving the. That and Islam.
Not sure about Hindus and Sikhs, but Islam breeds fatalism, “Inshallah”. If bad things happen (to others!) it was just their fate. No personal agency is required, or accepted. Of course the other (Brits, Chinese, Africans, Iranians, …) are at fault.
Eric’s other recent post on Pakistan is germane to this discussion.
Washington Post: The USA Should Pay for Pakistan’s Climate Floods
https://bit.ly/3Q3vXV4
8/29/22
Aha so Pakistan is attempting a bit of double dipping? How very ‘climate scientist’ – like of them.
From the article: “When flooding amplified by climate change began to submerge nearly a third of Pakistan recently”
There’s no evidence human-caused climate change is real or that it amplified flooding in Pakistan.
Satan wept.
This is from 2010 and gives some perspective;
https://web.archive.org/web/20100819060418/http://rupeenews.com/2010/08/15/history-of-floods-in-the-indus-valley-of-the-9000-year-old-pakistani-civilization/
“As torrential rain sweeps in from the Indian Ocean, floods are triggered almost annually. Its floodplain was an early cradle of civilisation 9,000 years ago. Here people first gave up their nomadic ways to farm livestock and cultivate crops.
The Indus Valley is home to 100 million people, who rely on it completely for drinking water and irrigation. Due to population growth, the people are now living in the alluvial flood plains, which used to be left for the river to meander about.
Today the river is changing its course and as it flows down, it engulfs many of the populated areas. 500 km of the river bed’s floodzone is called “kacha”. This is the natural flood plain of the river. However the “kacha area” is inhabited by millions of people and those who live there are poor people who do not have the means to live in safe areas.
Geologist Professor Peter Clift of Aberdeen University, has been precisely dating layers of flood-deposited sand in the Indus floodplain, in order to work out past changes in river flow, with surprising results:
“During a warm period 6,000 years ago, the Indus was a monster river, more powerful and more prone to flooding than today. Then, 4,000 years ago, as the climate cooled, a large part of it simply dried up. Deserts appeared where mighty torrents once flowed.”
The article then asks the question, “But what caused these thousand-year cycles of Indus drought and flood?”
I suspect it wasn’t coal-fired power stations and SUV’s.
A third of Pakistan did NOT flood. It is a mountainous country, the water would have to be 500 meters deep to even touch the valley sides.
What happened is a third of the Indus valley flood plain flooded. But these floods benefit the soil, bring new nutrients, guaranteeing future crops.