COMSATS University Islamabad, Virtual Campus

HUM111 Pakistan Studies

Assignment # 2
Fall 2020

Instructions

 Your assignment should be submitted as a MS Word document.

 The answer should be in proper English. Be careful of grammar. Avoid the use of
ungrammatical expressions within your answer.
 There is a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism. Assignments found with copy pasted
material or copied from fellows will not be accepted.
 Submit your assignment on your CU Online LMS portal within the given time frame.
Emailed assignments will not be entertained.

Assignment Task [Marks 10, CLO2-A3]

As you know, due to the current year heavy monsoon rains, many cities are affected by the
urban flooding. What do you understand by the term flooding? What measures should be
taken to overcome the natural hazards like urban flooding in Karachi?

Answer

Flood

An overflow of a large amount of water beyond its normal limits, especially over what is
normally dry land.

The term flooding

It is a situation in which an area is covered with water, especially from rain. In other words, it
is the covering or submerging of normally dry land with a large amount of water.

Whenever flooding takes place, there is the possibility of loss of life, hardship to people, and
extensive damage to property. This is because flooding can carry bridges, cars, houses, and
even people. Flooding also destroys crops and can wipe away trees and other important
structures on land. Some floods occur abruptly and recede quickly whereas others take

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several days or even months to form and to recede because of variation in size, duration, and
the area affected.

There are a lot of reasons that can cause flooding. Some of them are mentioned below

1. Heavy Rains

The simplest explanation for flooding is heavy rains. Unusually heavy weather at the source
of a river can lead to vast amounts of water draining into the water table. The water table of a
river is the area from which it gathers water, so if an unnaturally high level of water is
draining into this area, this will lead to similarly high levels of water in the river. As more
and more of the river’s tributary streams join the river, this effect is amplified until the
amount of water reaches a critical level; the banks – or the natural flood plain – cannot hold
such a volume and it spills over. This often occurs at lower reaches of a river in areas of
habitation, causing extensive damage.

2. Snow Melt

Sudden thaws in mountainous areas can lead to dangerous increases in water draining into the
water table. A dramatic temperature increase after a particularly cold winter causes the ice
and snow on mountaintops to melt and drain into valley rivers. This effect can cause similar
damage as heavy rainfall.

3. River Overflows

Rivers or streams can overflow their banks. This happens when the river or stream holds
more water upstream than usual, and it flows downstream to the neighboring low-lying areas,
typically referred to as the floodplains. Therefore, this creates a sudden discharge of water
into the adjacent lands leading to flooding.

Karachi Flood Reason

The recent flood in Karachi was a result of record rainfall combined with an inadequate
drainage system in the city. Karachi city has been facings severe problems due to heavy rains
in monsoon season as there are serious issues with the drainage system in Karachi. Karachi
has a very poorly maintained sewerage and drainage system. The sewerage and drainage
system of Karachi also exposed the Sindh government performance in the past 70 years.
Mostly the Sindh government never seemed to be interested or serious in resolving these
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issues. Sewerage and drainage system problems are considered as one of the biggest
problems of Karachi, but government looked to be failed to resolve these problems. Karachi
produces huge income which it shares in Pakistan’s economy and makes Karachi more
important city for Pakistan.

Some measures that could overcome natural hazards like urban flooding in Karachi are
mentioned below

i. By keeping the cities clean and reducing land pollution.

ii. By cleaning sewage from sewerage systems.
iii. By cleaning drainage systems.
iv. By building new sewerage and drainage systems where these are required.
v. By spreading awareness among public to keep their cities clean.

Good luck!

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