Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed - PDMA

following sequence contains the nature and effect of concentrated downpour that
generated super-foods travelling from the northern hills to southern plains before
its eventual fall into the sea, with colossal damages on the way with some
unusual features:-
a) Most rains in the north were unprecedented, some 60-100 km
westwards towards Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from its seasonal
monsoon loci in upper Punjab and Kashmir.
b) The first of the two rounds during 27-30 th July was after a long dry
spell, but the second round of 3-9 th August was in highly wet-soil
conditions.
c) The extraordinary quantum of daily localized downpour in the upper
catchments of Rivers Swat, Kabul and Indus; e.g. on 29 th July,
Cherat 257 mm, 187 mm at Saidu Sharif, 274 mm at Peshawar and
280 mm at Risalpur. Whereas historical annual highest at
Peshawar was 400 mm in the year 1996; other parts of the country
also received extensive downpours, at times with intervals.
d) Such rains in KP province generated flash floods of extremely high
magnitude. Peak discharges (60-200 per centum more than historic
maximum) in Swat river at Amandara and Munda, Kabul River at
Nowshehra. Extensive precipitation in the catchments of river Swat
in KP swelled flows from the Kabul River that coincided with heavy
rains in catchments of the Indus River.
e) For a while, it rendered planned response irrelevant and redundant,
as the irrigation infrastructure and public offices in the flood plain
were swept away by the high tide.
f) As waters began their downward journey, structures at Munda
Headworks on Swat River and rain-gauges on Kabul River near
Nowshehra were swept away.
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