Flood-hit farms and farmers, and to obtain compensation

Government began Pakthunkhwa Khyber give compensation to flood-hit farmers and farmers in the Lower Dir district of crops and animals destroyed in the last years devastating floods. Given to farmers hit flood Khaal Thesils, and Balambut Timergara Rs2400 per acre.Will be distributed during a ceremony held in the office of Executive Magistrate Timergara, Noor Wali Khan, the minister, which was also attended by Agriculture Edu Mehfoz Dr. Abdul Rahman.The government has distributed one million Pakthunkhwa Rs16.2 Khyber between farmers affected by floods 5000 union councils of the three Lower Dir district.The government gives high priority to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of flood-affected families and will use all available resources to improve their socio-economic.The compensation given to farmers on the basis of detailed survey and documentation. The official said the affected farmers can not be left alone, and the government will continue to provide facilities even stand on her feet. On this occasion, and assured full support to farmers for them.

china flood death tool 1,072. 619 people(aprox) missing

China's worst flooding in more than a decade has killed nearly 1,000 people across the country and stranded tens of thousands in the northeast without power.
The state-run flood control office said 968 people have been killed since the rainy beginning of the year and 507 others are missing.More heavy rains were expected for the southeast, southwest and northeast parts of the country through Thursday.About 30,000 residents in Kouqian town were trapped in their homes after torrential rains drenched the northeastern province of Jilin on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.Water began flooding the town after the nearby Xingshan Reservoir and the Wende and Songhua rivers overflowed. Rescuers were delivering supplies by boat and moving people to higher ground.In Jilin city in Jilin province, workers were busy recovering thousands of barrels of chemicals that had tumbled into the Songhua River after a flood swept through a local factory."The worry this year has been on the dams and the reservoirs ... This year it's been so much extra rainfall, about 15 per cent more than usual. "That complicates the situation because the reservoirs are getting full and the dams are nearing their maximum capacity."Flooding has hit areas all over China. A total of 875,000 homes have collapsed and almost 10 million people have been evacuated, according to Xinhua.The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, has reached 90 per cent of its full capacity.Thousands of workers have sandbagged riverbanks and checked reservoirs in preparation for potential floods expected to flow from the swollen Yangtze and Han rivers, an official with the Yangtze Water Resources Commission, said.
"Right now, the Han river in Hubei province is on the verge breaching warning levels".The Han is expected to rise this week to its highest level in two decades.Workers were prepared to blast holes in the river's embankment to divert flood waters into a low-lying area of farms and fish ponds, Xinhua said.
The toll in floods triggered by torrential rains in China this year has reached 1,072, while 619 people are still missing.The floods have affected over 140 million people in 28 provinces and caused economic losses estimated at almost 210 billion yuan, said Shu Qingpeng, deputy director of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief.Floods also destroyed over 1.1 million homes and damaged 9.72 million hectares of farmland.Rivers like the Yangtze, the Yellow and the Songhua were all swollen to danger levels after heavy rains. Authorities have evacuated 10.42 million people this year from areas at risk of flooding.

Beijing china earthquake destroyed 18,445 houses

An earthquake toppled more than 1,000 houses and apartment buildings in China's southwest near the border with Myanmar on Thursday, killing at least 24 people and injuring more than 200, The magnitude-5.8 quake was centered in Yingjiang and struck just before 1 p.m. (0500 GMT) at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers). The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 5.4 and at a deeper 21 miles (35 kilometers).Some 1,200 houses or apartments were crushed by the quake, said Zhao Yunshan, director of Yingjiang government press office. More than 127,000 people have been evacuated to nearby shelters, Xinhua reported, citing the Civil Affairs Ministry.According to the USGS, more than 1 million people may have been exposed to the worst shaking.Vice President Xi Jinping, expected to be the country's next leader, called for an "all-out" effort to get food, water and clothing to those affected by the quake, Xinhua said.Tremors continued to be felt in the area throughout the afternoon and evening, according to CCTV reporter Shu Qian, who was at the disaster scene in Yingjiang County.The quake's epicenter was in Shiming Village, just over a mile (two kilometers) from the county seat, but triggered a power outage across Yingjiang, which has a population of about 300,000 people, Xinhua said.By evening, the power supply was still cut off, though water and communications didn't appear to be damaged, Shu said.A government team that includes the Civil Affairs Ministry has been dispatched to the quake-stricken area. About 5,000 tents, 10,000 quilts and 10,000 coats are also being sent from the central government.The mountainous area lies 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) southwest of Beijing, close to the border with Myanmar, and is home to many ethnic groups on both sides of the border, which sees heavy traffic in people and goods.Xinhua said the quake-prone region has been hit by more than 1,000 minor tremors over the past two months.The Myanmar Meteorological Department released a statement saying a quake had hit some 230 miles (370 kilometers) northeast of Mandalay, the country's second-largest city.The statement did not mention injuries, damage or the specific area of Myanmar most affected by the quake. Authorities in the tightly ruled country tend not to immediately discuss the effects of natural disasters.Much of the area on the Myanmar side been under the control of various armed ethnic groups, who have battled the Myanmar military to remain free from central government control.BEIJING, March 12 About 127,100 residents have been evacuated to safety after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit Yingjiang County in southwest China's Yunnan Province Thursday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Saturday.As of 10 p.m. Friday, the earthquake has left 25 people dead and more than 250 others injured including 134 seriously, the ministry said in a report.All the casualties were reported in Yingjiang County, with the surrounding counties including Longchuan, Lianghe, Ruili and Luxi reporting damages of thousands of houses or apartments, it said.The earthquake has affected the production and life of about 344,600 residents in the five counties.The earthquake destroyed 18,445 houses and apartments and left 55,345 others seriously damaged, the ministry's figures showed.

meteorological department warning for sindh,balochistan fisherman

The sea condition would become rough to very rough on Friday and the fishermen who were in the open sea must return to the coast before it.
It stated that a well-marked low-pressure area in the eastern Arabian Sea was likely to intensify into a depression (strong weather system) on Wednesday evening/night. “The current sea surface temperature is (around 30 degrees centigrade) and other meteorological parameters are favourable for the development of a tropical cyclone on Thursday/ Friday,” it added.Officials said that as a result of this cyclonic activity the coastal areas of Balochistan and Sindh, including Karachi, would receive rain with thunderstorm by Friday.However, Met Department Director-General Arif Mehmood told Dawn that it was too early to forecast rain in Karachi or anywhere else due to this low-pressure area in the Arabian Sea.“So far it (the cyclone) is in the development process and we don’t know what will be its track and where it will go.”Although the direction of wind did not change on Tuesday and remained south-westerly with a speed of 12 knots, the city’s maximum temperature increased by two degrees compared to Monday’s maximum temperature of 37 degrees centigrade.The maximum temperature in the city was 39 degrees centigrade on Tuesday. The level of humidity, a measure of the amount of moisture in the air, also dropped to 38 per cent from Monday’s 57 per cent.The Met Office forecast hot and dry weather in Karachi on Wednesday with the maximum temperature ranging between 36 and 38 degrees centigrade.

most severe flood in history "climate change" natural disaster policy

“In fact Pakistan is among the few developing countries which has prepared such a comprehensive national policy on a subject which is on top of the global priority agenda may be after war on terror,” said Dr Qamaruzaman Chaudhary, former director general of Meteorological Department of Pakistan and leading author of the policy.The policy draft has already been accepted by the country’s Ministry of Environment and is ready for the cabinet’s approval.
In 2008, the Climate Change Task Force was formed for the policy draft. Some 40 experts from different but related fields strived for two years to finalise it. The task force also consulted federal and provincial agencies, organisations and other experts.The country has diverse ecosystems which include coastlines, deserts, arid zones, mountains and glaciers. These areas are in danger due to population growth, lack of planning and mismanagement.
For Pakistan, climate change is a reality as data of temperature from the last 100 years shows a visible increase in heat. It is also among the top countries vulnerable to climate change.“Particularly, during the last two decades, extreme weather events like heavy rains, heat and droughts have increased,” Chaudhary said.This pattern of extreme weather could be noticed in Thar. The region is an arid zone where drought arrives after every three years, and may stay put for 12 months or more.But there is a harsh twist in this pattern: the third drought in the cycle tends to be longer and more severe than the first two and parches the land for three years. This triggers the mass migration of locals to the other green areas.The main objective of the policy is to sustain economic growth by addressing the challenges of climate change.The sectors of water resources, agriculture, human health, forestry, biodiversity and others are also among the top priorities along with the areas of mountains, pastures, marine and coastal eco-systems. The policy is to also to be integrated by other related policies.“The policy is a multi-sector approach in which the long term project will come under the National Climate Change Action Plane – a road map for adaptation and mitigation of serious problems,” said Jawed Ali Khan, Director General (Environment) at the Ministry of Environment.
The policy also stressed upon the importance of learning, training, technical, and capacity building approach. These targets are to be achieved by awareness, national and international cooperation, technology transfer and funding.Chaudhary has confirmed an action plan as the next step and hoped it will be ready within next few months.The policy also needs immediate implementation because the country faced extreme floods in 2010 in which 2,000 people died, 20 million were displaced and one-fifth of the country was under water.The upper margin of the country is dotted with glaciers and mountains which serve as water towers for the country. Pakistan has already been observing snow liquefy floods – without any rain – and melting glaciers. Thus the threat of extreme monsoons could also occur in future.The GCISC, a research center for climate change, also contributed to the policy draft.The US based Pakistani Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Cener for the Study of Longer- Range Future and author of IPCC report, Dr. Adil Najam has welcomed Pakistan’s first policy draft on climate change.
“I think what the draft says is correct, but may already have been said in a whole host of other policy documents. The challenge is to turn the general statements into specific targets and timetables,” said Najam.“Good policy should also be rooted in the specific priorities and contexts of the nation. From this standpoint, it seems to be that any climate change policy for Pakistan has to confront the energy issues, especially in the context of constant load-shedding.

"global warming"heavy rain and disastrous flood and cliamte experts

One group of researchers looked at the strongest rain and snow events of each year from 1951 to 1999 in the Northern Hemisphere and found that the more recent storms were 7 per cent wetter. That may not sound like much, but it adds up to be a substantial increase, said the report from a team of researchers from Canada and Scotland.The study did not single out specific storms but examined worst-of-each-year events all over the Northern Hemisphere. While the study ended in 1999, the close of the decade when scientists say climate change kicked into a higher gear, the events examined were similar to more recent disasters: deluges that triggered last year’s deadly floods in Pakistan and in Nashville, Tennessee, and this winter’s paralyzing blizzards in parts of the United States.The change in severity was most apparent in North America, but that could be because that is where the most rain gauges are, scientists said.
Both studies should weaken the argument that climate change is a ‘‘victimless crime,’’ said Myles Allen of the University of Oxford. He co-authored the second study, which connected flooding and climate change in Britain. ‘‘Extreme weather is what actually hurts people.’’Jonathan Overpeck, a University of Arizona climate scientist, who did not take part in either study, praised them as sensible and ‘‘particularly relevant given the array of extreme weather that we’ve seen this winter and stretching back over the last few years.Not all the extreme rain and snow events the scientists studied cause flooding. But since 1950, flooding has killed more than 2.3 million people, according to the World Health Organization’s disaster database.The British study focused on flooding in England and Wales in autumn of 2000. The disaster cost more than $1.7 billion in insured damages and was the wettest autumn for the region in more than 230 years of record-keeping.Researchers found that global warming more than doubled the likelihood of that flood occurring. Similar studies are now under way to examine whether last year’s deadly Russian heat wave and Pakistan floods . which were part of the same weather event _ can be scientifically attributed to global warming.For years scientists, relying on basic physics and climate knowledge, have said global warming would likely cause extremes in temperatures and rainfall. But this is the first time researchers have been able to point to a demonstrable cause-and-effect by using the rigorous and scientifically accepted method of looking for the ‘‘fingerprints’’ of human-caused climate change.The scientists took all the information that shows an increase in extreme rain and snow events from the 1950s through the 1990s and ran dozens of computer models numerous times. They put in the effects of greenhouse gases _ which come from the burning of fossil fuels _ and then ran numerous models without those factors. Only when the greenhouse gases are factored in do the models show a similar increase to what actually happened. All other natural effects alone don’t produce the jump in extreme rainfall. Essentially, the computer runs show climate change is the only way to explain what’s happening.In fact, the computer models underestimated the increase in extreme rain and snow. That is puzzling and could be even more troubling for our future, said Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University, who was not part of the study.Similar fingerprinting studies have found human-caused greenhouse gas emissions triggered changes in more than a dozen other ecological ways: temperatures on land, the ocean’s surface, heat content in the depths of the oceans, temperature extremes, sea level pressure, humidity at ground level and higher in the air, general rainfall amounts, the extent of Arctic sea ice, snowpack levels and timing of runoff in the western United States, Atlantic Ocean salinity, wildfire damage, and the height of the lower atmosphere.All those signs say global warming is here, said Xuebin Zhang, a research scientist for the Canadian government and co-author of the Northern Hemisphere study. ‘‘It is affecting us in multiple directions.’’Most of the 10 outside climate experts who reviewed the papers for The Associated Press called the research sound and strong.The terrible floods killed more than 2,000 people and left more than 20 million injured or homeless in Pakistan. The flooding began in July and at one point it was estimated that 20 per cent of Pakistan’s total land area was under water.Robert Houze, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor, and colleagues examined radar data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite.They were able to see that rainfall that caused Indus River in Pakistan to overflow was triggered over the Himalayas, within a storm system that had formed over the Bay of Bengal in late July and moved unusually far to the west. Because the rain clouds were within the moisture-laden storm from the east, they were able to pour abnormal amounts of rain on the barren mountainsides, which then ran into the Indus.The progress of storm system stood out in the satellite radar data, Houze said. The storms were associated with a wind pattern that could be traced in satellite data back to its origin over the Bay of Bengal.

Pakistan: reconstruction plan for earhquake effected

BALAKOT: A dead body of a seven-year child was found from Balakot school debris after over six months of the October 08 earthquake last year.
The body of a class one student identified as Adeel s/o Qadeerullah was found after 207 days of the earthquake from wreckage of a school at Kaghan road in Sanghar village about five kilometers’ distance from Balakot. The body was found when debris of the school building being cleared for reconstruction of a new building.ISLAMABAD: The groundbreaking ceremony of the earthquake-devastated Government Girls Postgraduate College, Rawalakot, which is being reconstructed with the assistance of Religious Affairs Turkish-Islamic Union (DITIB) and Ihlas Media Holding (IMH), will be held on May 5.The reconstruction initiative was preceded by extensive consultations with the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority as well as with the other related local authorities, following which a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between DITIB, IMH and ERRA on April 27.The construction of the project has been awarded to Turcon (private) Limited. The college will be constructed over an area of 243,000 square feet. The covered area will include 30 classrooms, laboratories for biology, chemistry, physics and science, a gymnasium, a 100-bed hostel, examination hall, administration block and houses for accommodation of the principal and teachers of the college. The building will be constructed along conventional lines, i.e., it will be a reinforced concrete framed structure. The design and calculations of the building will be done in Turkey through latest technology and in accordance with the geological parameters of the area. The ground breaking ceremony of the college will be performed at the site in Rawalakot on May 5 at 10:30 a.m. The ceremony will be attended by Turkish Ambassador H. Kemal Gur, Lieutenant-General Nadeem Ahmed, Deputy Chairman ERRA and representatives of DITIB and IMH, as well as local authorities. Interest-free loans for 800 earthquake-hit families ISLAMABAD: The Muslim Aid has embarked on the project of rehabilitation as well as restoration of employment in the districts of Poonch and Bagh. A spokesman of Muslim Aid said that under the programme, interest-free loans would be given expeditiously to the heads of 800 families so that they could run small business to help themselves stand on their feet. The loans would be giving on a mere personal guarantee and could be returned within two years. In first phase, 200 people have been facilitated as after taking loans they have made a fresh start to their lives. The Muslim Aid, in collaboration with the Sukhi Foundation, has arranged a professional training as well as technical guidance programme.