02/09/2025
From the beginning of civilization, humans have settled near rivers. Water gave us life, trade routes, fertile land, and prosperity. But it also came with flood risk.
Even today, some of the world’s most modern cities, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and many more, are built on riverbanks. And yes, they still face floods. But here’s the difference: through engineering, embankments, and proper planning, the risks are calculated and managed.
That’s why the popular statement we often hear in Pakistan, “the river has taken its land back,” is misleading. Rivers don’t suddenly reclaim territory. It’s our failure to manage floodplains that puts lives at risk.
In Pakistan, we’ve allowed people to build homes and infrastructure on river edges, often without embankments or infrastructure design for floods. During dry periods, livelihoods thrive on these fertile banks, agriculture, dairy, and small settlements. But when the inevitable flood comes, rivers flow naturally into their floodplains, washing away homes and futures.
👉 And because most of these people are poor, their losses feel like nature’s punishment rather than the result of poor planning.
👉 When floods hit more affluent areas like Lahore’s housing societies along the Ravi, suddenly the conversation grows louder, but the root issue remains the same.
One thing we often hear in the media is: “this rain has broken a 30-year or 40-year record.” But here’s the reality:
✅ All critical infrastructure worldwide is designed for at least a 1-in-100-year flood event, and in some countries even for 1-in-200-year events.
✅ A “1-in-100-year flood” doesn’t mean it happens once in a century — it means there’s a 1% chance every single year. Which also means you could have two such floods back-to-back.
Let’s be clear: living near rivers or coasts is not impossible, in fact, 85% of Australians live on the coast, and globally, most major cities are riverside or coastal. The solution isn’t to vacate kilometers away. The solution is to plan, design, and adapt.
🏠 Housing societies and developers must be required to submit flood studies and risk reports before approval.
🛡️ Embankments and levees must be designed for at least a 1-in-100-year flood, just like in cities across the world.
🌍 Communities must be made flood-resilient, not flood-victims.
💡 Most importantly: new legislation should require that any housing, road, bridge, or urban infrastructure project near riverbanks or floodplains include a proper flood study before design approval. Without this, we are simply repeating the cycle of disaster.
Because putting people on riverbanks without protection is like building a house on a highway and hoping no traffic comes.
It’s time to move past myths, blame, or divine explanations. Floods will come; the real question is whether we choose to prepare for them.
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