Socio Economic Impacts Of Floods: A Case Study Of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa From 2010 To 2022

Abstract

Climate Change appears to jolt the global political and socio economic dynamics at an unprecedented rate. The discourse initiating by the end of twentieth century with plausible climatic, hydrological and habitational transformations internationally, henceforth, dominate the academic, diplomatic, security and economic rhetoric with wide ranging hazards. Even though Pakistan was one of the ten most susceptible nations, the terrible floods of 2022 solidified its place as the victim of the world's indifference to the problem. One third of the nation was submerged in flood in 2022, and the terrible floods of 2010 destroyed a fifth of the country, costing around USD 10 billion, which worsened to USD 30 billion. Pakistan is water rich but simultaneously water scarce country, already facing water security and concomitant food security crises. The situation is compounded manifolds by the Climate Change in all provinces of the country at varied scales. However, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the north western province has sufficient hydrological resources but the inadequate water management has complicated the problems as in the rest of the country. The phenomenon of massive flooding has increased in intensity, scale and volume due to inadaptability to Climate Restoration. Urban flooding is another and major impact of flood devastations implicating national socio economic patterns. During the floods of 2010 and 2022, the districts of Swat, Nowshehra and Dera Ismail Khan in this province suffered mass flooding. The devastation of agriculture, industries, urban and rural infrastructure and climate induced migrations cause a myriad of economic and social problems implicating national fabric. This study is aimed at understanding the hydrological dynamics of KPK province from the social and economic perspectives. The research focuses on developing Climate Restoration Adaptation Framework for KPK by analyzing the US and Chinese models of mitigating floods.