The fault lies not in our stars
Arifa Noor

Published August 30, 2022

IT takes a humanitarian crisis to overshadow the political crises that engulf us most of the time. And if the advent of Covid-19 was one such moment where for a moment attention was diverted from our usual bak bak, the floods we are grappling with are another.

Over a decade after the 2010 super floods, Pakistan has been hit by another calamity but this time around nature has been even more wrathful. The rains and destruction have surpassed those of 2010. And if the dire predictions are to be believed, this is simply the beginning.

As government officials and others have pointed out time and again that climate change is at work. The heat came early and was unrelenting for months on end. And even as we were sweltering, there was talk of not just early monsoons but also a heavier than usual one. And heavier it was.

The rains were in some ways just as unpredictable as the early onset of heat; in fact, climate expert Aisha Khan says there were fears of a drought in parts of Balochistan which are now inundated.

But the problem is that climate change is also turning into an excuse. The phrase has become as popular as, say, ‘lockdown’ was two years ago. If anyone needs proof, simply hear talk-show discussions, where the word pops up regularly. It seems to be the excuse we needed to absolve ourselves of responsibility. Climate change, after all, is caused by global decisions and Pakistan, as a poorer and less developed country, is at the receiving end. But this is simply not the entire picture. The rains and their intensity are beyond our control, the havoc they wreak is not.

The rains and their intensity are beyond our control, the havoc they wreak is not.

Let us consider Karachi. The urban flooding in the city has now become a yearly event, which leads to much noise and discussion for a few days before the entire matter is forgotten. The poor planning and regulations, the particularly problematic encroachments are not addressed, except perhaps where the less privileged reside. So the poor will be thrown out in the name of clearing encroachments while upscale housing societies (also encroaching upon drains) remain untouched.

And there are the obligatory photos of the drains being cleared of rubbish, with little focus on why the plastic bags will not end up there again if there is no comprehensive waste disposal plan. Once the attention diverts, life goes back to the old, bad ways and the next year brings the same chaos. Karachi is just one example of our inability to find solutions; we bring the same approach to climate change and floods.

Back in 2010, when the rains hit, we were made aware of how our growing need for housing (and more) had led to habitats being built close to the riverbeds, which was a major reason for the immense destruction. This was highlighted again and again, as we carried out improper construction in urban centres such as Karachi and even Islamabad. But a decade later, it appears no steps were taken to address the issue.

And now, once again, we speak of hotels built too close to River Swat or the habitation in the kacha. But rest assured, there will be little more than talk once the waters — as well as the images on television screens — recede. For this is an issue linked directly to our population numbers, which has been ignored for decades.

Beyond this, the 2010 floods highlighted the need for advanced planning for coping with climatic disasters. This planning begins with ensuring advance warning — from the technology to predict the weather to the ability to communicate the information to district administrations and vulnerable communities. Back in 2010, in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, districts were not informed in time because a fax machine was out of order.

Even more important is the need for data collection, mapping and advance planning for rescue and relief operations. Mapping of the more vulnerable areas and communities in times of floods and identification of locations the evacuees can be guided or taken towards should be carried out.

But even this would not be enough, if we don’t have an integrated flood management and disaster management system — an exercise which may require far more than an NCOC to be in place during the time of a crisis.

The need for this was highlighted in 2010 also when excessive damage was caused partly due to the absence of an integrated management system.

However, all of this also requires a rehaul of the irrigation departments, which were discussed in detail in the inquiries carried out in Punjab and by the Supreme Court.

According to news reports, the Punjab judicial commission report on the 2010 floods had put the blame heavily on the Punjab irrigation department. In order to understand the logic of this, here is an excerpt from a report titled Malevolent Floods of Pakistan by Naseer Memon: “…after the police, the Irrigation Department is the second highly politicised department. The posting of grade 17 and grade 18 in the department is directly governed by the irrigation minister and the chief minister respectively. This lucrative position is traded Rs1.5 to 2 million.”

In fact, the inquiries had been ordered because of reports of how floodwaters had been diverted to save the lands of the powerful.

The reports had also singled out officials of the irrigation department who were to be held accountable, and a simple Google search reveals how courts continued to be approached about the implementation of these orders for years after the reports came out. Governments are not interested in any reform of the irrigation department.

PS: It may be of interest that the report described as counterproductive the visits of politicians and governments officials to the affected areas. Not just the politicians but also the media should take note before pushing for these visits. We need officials in offices making and implementing policies rather than handing over rations or meeting the survivors. That should be the work of local governments. If we only had effective ones.

The writer is a journalist.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2022

Apocalypse now

Zarrar Khuhro 

Published August 29, 2022

MAKE no mistake, we are currently in the midst of the greatest ‘natural’ disaster we have ever experienced. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), over 900 people are dead, close to 300,000 homes have been partially destroyed and about 200,000 homes have been completely destroyed. If we estimate that around six people live in a household (and this is a conservative estimate) then 30 million people — nearly 15 per cent of Pakistan’s entire population — are currently homeless or living without adequate shelter. This same estimate has also been quoted by ministers Sherry Rehman and Ahsan Iqbal.

Estimates are all we have at the moment, as the extent of the flooding is such that the magnitude of the destruction and loss will only become clear once the waters recede. It is a disaster that will reveal itself in stages and will have repercussions far beyond the affected areas.

But it is already clear that the scale of this disaster is many times greater than that of the 2010 floods which, devastating as they were, were riverine floods. This time, the water is everywhere. And it is relentless.

Editorial: Provincial govts must be more effective at coordinating flood relief efforts this time

The length and breadth of Sindh is inundated from Karachi to Kashmore, and the devastation is such that every previous flood experienced in living memory pales in comparison, with some areas having received more rain in a short period of time than the entire province usually receives during the duration of the monsoons. As a result, while in 2010 we saw the left bank areas of the Indus badly hit, this time the impact is felt all over the province.

The scale of this disaster is far greater than that of the 2010 floods.

Rescue and relief simply cannot cope, and as waters stagnate and people are forced to shelter under the open skies or else in hurriedly established relief camps, the dangers of water and mosquito-borne diseases is ever-present.

Infrastructure has also been badly damaged countrywide, and this is especially tragic when it comes to Balochistan which was the most underdeveloped province of Pakistan even before the floods hit. With large parts of the province cut off from all access, the true magnitude of the destruction will not be clear for many months but if NDMA figures are anything to go by, over 710 kilometres of metalled roads have been completely swept away. In absolute terms, however, it is the road system of Sindh that has been worst hit, with over 2,200km of roads destroyed.

And the worst is yet to come: consider the damage to agriculture and what that portends. In Sindh alone, as per Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, the entire cotton crop has been lost as has most of the sugarcane crop, and orchards have sustained heavy damage as well. This doesn’t only spell doom for farmers, but also the textile industry, a major source of exports, which relies on this crucial raw material. Rice mills and rice exporters will face the same crisis and the overall agricultural losses also mean that the entire agribusiness chain has been practically wiped out, from middlemen to pesticide and fertiliser manufacturers, sales agents and other staff.

To make matters worse, it is uncertain if the wheat plantation will be able to go ahead given not only the floods but also the losses suffered by farmers, most of whom live from crop to crop and season to season. Here I’m not talking about large agriculturists who may have the ability to sustain a season of losses, but the smaller farmers who simply do not have the resources to survive a lost year. Hundreds of thousands of heads of livestock have also been lost which amounts to an irreplaceable loss for communities and will make rebuilding that much harder. In economic terms the cumulative losses mean a huge blow to Pakistan’s GDP and the very real possibility of massive food shortages. Couple that with the expected mass migration to urban centres and you can easily see what the near future will hold for us.

In Waseb — and this is likely true for other areas as well — the disaster has been compounded by a tragically flawed development model where the natural waterways and channels leading from the mountains to the Indus have been disrupted by constructions of various types, and the traditional earthworks that channelled such floods were allowed to fall into disrepair. Granted, the magnitude of the rainfall is such that perhaps no such channels would have sufficed, but there is little doubt that some of the damage could have been mitigated had we, as a nation, not been so addicted to ‘development’ which ignores the lay of the land. To see the results of this, you need look no further than Swat, which has seen houses, restaurants and hotels that were built right on the riverbank in blatant violation of regulations, swept away by the torrents. Can we rebuild? Can we pick up the pieces and carry on? And most crucially, will we ever learn?

The writer is a journalist.

Twitter: @zarrarkhuhro

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2022

A little empathy, please

Abbas Nasir Published August 28, 2022

PAKISTAN has witnessed many periods of polarisation within society, especially during long spells of military rule and its aftermath, but the current divide seems so pronounced and bitter that even a natural calamity can’t bring the leaders onto the same page.

All politicians and political parties have the right to aspire to office; coming into government is the only route for them to be able to implement their manifesto or agenda for the good of the people and the country, at least in theory, and win the confidence of the electorate.

But surely there are circumstances when political rivalries and jostling for power should take a backseat as the immediate well-being of a huge mass of our people is threatened; when no government or political party or organisation can meet the challenges all on its own.

The devastation caused by the ongoing unprecedented rain and the resultant flooding in large swathes of the country is a prime example of an emergency that no single entity can deal with. What is required is for the whole nation to come together. Therefore, it is sad to see our ‘leaders’ pulling in different directions.

It does not take much to display empathy towards a broken people whose homes have collapsed and who have lost everything.

The prime minister was filmed dropping food parcels from a helicopter to people in a flood-affected area in Sindh; another video showed Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari accompanying Shehbaz Sharif to a relief camp in Sukkur.

To be honest, these leaders were late to the task as the unprecedented rainfall has been going on for some three to four weeks. They will have to explain why the army was called out to assist this last Friday and not earlier.

Read: Politics of vendetta is scaling new peaks at a time when Pakistan faces two unprecedented crises

Also, while the whole country knows how wealthy some of our political leaders are, they have been appealing for donations without pledging a rupee from their own pockets. Even if they are quietly donating funds, that is not enough.

After all, if they feel meeting flood-hit people and dropping food parcels to those left stranded by the water makes for good optics, they should also make public the donations from their own pockets as examples other affluent people in society can emulate.

While we are on the subject of donations, there was an object lesson in how not to give to the needy. Mir Munawar Talpur, a Sindh politician married to former president Asif Ali Zardari’s sister, was shown with a thick wad of rupee notes that he was handing out to the displaced persons.

He may have felt big and generous in handing out money like this, but one wishes he’d also kept in mind the dignity of the shirtless grabbing the handout. The money may have taken care of some of the immediate needs of a handful of people but the video was a distasteful and unsavoury spectacle on social media. Not just that, he soon ran out of what looked like Rs50 notes.

Like large parts of Sindh, many districts in southern Punjab remain inundated, with people there complaining of no relief effort. Having received a drubbing in the recent Punjab Assembly by-elections, one would have expected the PML-N leaders to have been proactive there. But I have seen no evidence of any senior PML-N leader amidst the flood-affected people offering succour. Yes, I know, they are not in government but it does not take much to display empathy towards a broken people whose homes have collapsed and who have lost everything.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan tell a similar story of large-scale devastation with the governments there still appearing sluggish in addressing the grave crisis. This again underlines the importance of everyone joining hands to supplement the government effort.

I won’t go into the numbers in detail but Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said on record that some 30 million people have been displaced. This is a staggering figure by any stretch. It means that each one of us will have to do our part to get some relief to those hammered by nature.

The half a billion dollars so far pledged by international organisations will not be enough. This is only the rescue phase. Once the waters recede, the exact magnitude of the damage to infrastructure, crops and livestock will become clear. It is incumbent on each one of us to step forward not just out of our humanity but for self-preservation too.

I say this because if the means of livelihood in the rural areas have been snatched away from the people by the floods, they will have no option but to head to urban centres in search of work to be able to feed their families. This level of migration against the backdrop of a government hamstrung by large deficits can very easily lead to social unrest, even upheaval.

The reluctance of Pakistan’s most effective and successful fund-raiser, former prime minister Imran Khan, to start a campaign because “raising funds is a huge responsibility” as one needs to ensure each penny raised can be accounted for and “I can’t be sure this will happen” was strange. Even though he later announced an ‘international telethon’ to collect funds for the victims, one could be forgiven for detecting a bit of politics in his initial stance. Was it part of PTI’s game plan, when one of Mr Khan’s top aides Fawad Chaudhry told a TV channel that his party’s governments in Punjab and KP would write to the IMF saying they were unable to meet some of the conditions attached to the IMF package?

Hopefully, that was mere rhetoric. The last straw after the ravages of floods would be an IMF package thrown into limbo again. Partisan politics can and should be put on hold for a few months, in the larger interest of our people.

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
abbas.nasir@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2022

Man-made catastrophes

Ali Tauqeer Sheikh 

Published August 25, 2022

PAKISTAN is in the midst of a man-made disaster. Our flawed development model has made our lives insecure in both the urban and rural areas. This pattern of development has robbed us of the monsoons — our season of romance, raindrops, walking in the rain, and singing songs. The monsoons have always been part of our folklore and poetry. They are the soul of our culture, heritage and history, and are connected with our lives, lifestyles and livelihoods. Historically, we have not dreaded the monsoons, but now we have begun to fear them.

Editorial: Climate catastrophe

From the earliest agrarian settlements in Mehrgarh to the Indus Valley civilisation and centuries later the Mughal period, we have coexisted with seasonal floods and prolonged droughts. But the development path chosen since then has resulted in a competitive, even zero-sum relationship with our natural environment — forests, waterways, waterbodies and ecosystems.

Gravity propels the water flow, but our development model is insisting on defying gravity. Our settlements, infrastructure, economy, livelihoods and livestock, all have become unnecessarily vulnerable and fragile primarily because we have been obstructing water’s flow. Can this season of biblical rains and deadly floods provide us an opportunity to reflect and re-envision our development model?


The scale, scope and spread of the 2022 floods have surpassed the super floods of 2010. The monsoon rains have created unprecedented havoc in all regions of the country stretching from Gilgit-Baltistan and KP to Sindh, southern Punjab and Balochistan. No doubt the downpour itself was unprecedented in many areas, but the monsoon waters are furious primarily because we have choked their passages and encroached on banks and shoulders. The floodwaters are only reclaiming their right of way. Infrastructure and community assets, including the ones developed since the super floods eg the 11 small dams in Balochistan, are being washed away, damaged or destroyed.

Clearly, no lessons have been drawn or applied to disaster-proof subsequent infrastructural development. Neighbourhoods in villages, small towns, and larger cities have no rainwater or floodwater channels. This absence overwhelms sewerage lines and pollutes drinking water supplies where they exist. Electricity poles are exposed and there are no plans to flood-proof them. Roads and railway tracks are often without culverts; they continue to obstruct the water flow. Land-use changes happen at will, resulting in urban sprawls as well as grand housing societies and villagers’ unplanned hamlets, often clashing with the annual flood cycles.


Flooding has emerged as the worst type of climate-induced disaster for Pakistan, perhaps the deadliest.

To top it all, the country has become a prisoner of the four deadly sins of development: i) top-down development planning and resource allocation, in the belief that it can reduce local vulnerabilities, ii) disparate development schemes, often randomly selected, thinking that it will add up to a sustainable growth rate, iii) archaic and poor standards for infrastructure development, presuming that it will withstand increasing resilience needs, and iv) the statist development model, a political system that has substantial centralised control over social and economic affairs, thinking of it as a substitute for local governance institutions or national resilience standards.

Editorial: Rain disaster

Climate-induced flooding is caused primarily by two key processes that also lead to changes in the monsoon patterns: first, warmer air will produce more rain. As global air temperatures increase, the clouds can hold more water vapour resulting in more water-intense or torrential downpours. It is because of this basic science that many climate models project that the South Asian monsoons will see heavier, frequent, and untimely rains.

Second, the seawater rise has increased coastal flooding but the higher levels of temperatures at sea give higher temperature points to the clouds and indeed greater ability to enter farther over land. The increasing frequency of flooding in Balochistan is sometimes attributed to these westerly weather influences, rather than the traditional eastern monsoon originating from the Bay of Bengal. This change in the weather cycle seems to have added to the frequency and severity of floods in the typically non-monsoon areas of Balochistan.

Climate change is fuelling flooding in Pakistan. Flooding has indeed emerged as the worst type of climate-induced disaster for the country, perhaps the deadliest. It is making flooding less natural and more disastrous. The frequency of heavy flooding is also increasing.

After recent flooding in Elbe and other rivers in eastern Germany, studies estimated that flooding was nine times more likely to be triggered by global climate change. Floods are complicated but not only because of the changes in weather patterns; it is also due to the position or location of infrastructure, its designs and the material used to enhance resilience levels. The infrastructure destroyed by floods — houses, roads, dams, embankments, power lines, bridges — are costly to rebuild.

Not ready to accept it as a grand failure of public sector development planning, the federal and provincial governments were quick to blame climate change, instead of poor early warning systems, poorly functioning government departments, poor building designs, construction guidelines, material standards and of course, the unplanned growth of human settlements.

Instead of accepting that our development model is non-inclusive and because of that it is neither disaster-resilient nor climate-smart, policymakers, media and public policy analysts are all creating misleading and fatalist myths as if no steps can be taken to reduce vulnerabilities.

Read: Rain disaster: The tragedy is that leaders focus on settling political scores even as a human catastrophe unfolds

The governments’ response to the loss of lives, livestock, houses, and standing crops was prompt and predictable: extend emergency supplies through disaster-management authorities, followed by cash grants through the Benazir Income Support Programme. Little attention has been given to calculating economic losses or the cost of climate-resilient reconstruction.

Pakistan’s previous effort to ‘build back better’, after the 2005 earthquake hasn’t succeeded. How best can the national and provincial policymakers respond to increasing floods and get a grip on climate resilience?

As architect Arif Hasan said in these pages recently ‘It’ll flood again’. The floods will become costlier, unless Pakistan’s response integrates adaptation and mitigation to reap the co-benefits of resilience. Instead of stopping at cash grant disbursements, it’s time to create a special-purpose vehicle for risk transfer and insurance in five key areas: the lives of bread earners, shelter, livestock, standing crops and small and micro enterprises.

The writer is an expert on climate change and development.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2022

https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1951/murder.htm

Murder of the Dead by Amadeo Bordiga 1951 

In Italy, we have long experience of “catastrophes that strike the country” and we also have a certain specialisation in “staging” them. Earthquakes, volcanic ...

Twitter tattle
Editorial 

Published September 1, 2022 

TWITTER, the social media platform loved and used by journalists, dissidents and activists worldwide, may in fact be quite unsafe for them if recent revelations made by the company’s former security chief Peiter Zatko are to be believed. One allegation in particular has prompted considerable concern in the Pakistani security establishment: the Indian government apparently infiltrated Twitter’s security system through an operative. Mr Zatko believes this agent very likely accessed sensitive user data because of Twitter’s weak security infrastructure, which is reportedly plagued by obsolete servers and vulnerable software. Mr Zatko also claimed that Twitter’s executive team knew “that the Indian government had succeeded in placing agents on the company payroll”, but never informed users. According to another company source, it is widely believed that the Indian government had previously also interfered or attempted to interfere in Twitter’s internal workings.

Indian attempts at espionage using Twitter’s systems have far more serious implications if viewed as a whole with the other revelations made by Mr Zatko. According to the former hacker, Twitter’s internal controls are allegedly so weak that sensitive information can easily be accessed by rogue elements working for other countries. In fact, just earlier this month, a former manager employed by Twitter, Ahmad Abuammo, was convicted by a US court on six criminal counts for spying for Saudi Arabia, including acting as an agent for the country and trying to disguise a payment from an official with links to Saudi Arabia’s royal family. These developments paint a startling picture for those who frequently use the platform for communication and information. Clearly, anyone who can be targeted for expressing views that run contrary to powerful interests should be wary. Twitter collects quite a lot of personal information from people who have accounts on the microblogging platform, and this information can easily be misused if it falls in the wrong hands. When viewed in hindsight, attempts to infiltrate social media companies, the recent blockage of Twitter handles operated by Pakistani diplomatic missions, the systematic erasure from social media of critical voices from occupied Kashmir as well as an ongoing disinformation campaign functioning on the back of social media and aimed at discrediting Pakistan present a sinister picture of how Indian authorities intend to misuse social media for their ends. Twitter has a responsibility to satisfy Pakistani authorities and demonstrate that it remains committed to the safety of the people who use its service.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2022

PAKISTAN FLOOD
Aid for pregnant women

Editorial 

DAWN.COM

Published September 1, 2022


IT is a serious matter: the due date for approximately 73,000 of the over half a million pregnant women affected by the floods is this month, while around 577,000 others are set to give birth later. With access to medical facilities and personnel, including birth attendants, cut off at many places, it is uncertain how they and their families will cope at the time of delivery and after. Even under normal circumstances, access to healthcare for women, including those who are expecting, remains a big challenge in Pakistan. The statistics speak for themselves. The maternal mortality rate, according to the United Nations Population Fund, is 186 deaths per 100,000 live births — it may be an improvement over past years, but it is still higher than the statistics for many other developing countries. In normal circumstances, pregnant women have to bear with untrained midwives or rickety medical facilities at decrepit government hospitals where professional healthcare is near absent and wrong advice is often dispensed. The trauma of pregnant women in times of disaster then can only be imagined. It is a living nightmare for them — mentally and physically. Many of them are doubly at risk of contracting water-borne infections and being further malnourished with access to food limited at best. Those with complicated pregnancies face even greater hazards.

Besides the danger to the women themselves, there are also concerns for the health of the newborn infant. Babies born in these appalling circumstances will show the effects of poor nutrition and may contract birth-related infections. There is an urgent need for the authorities to take note of the looming threat and provide medical and nutritional assistance to pregnant women who have been affected by the floods. A comprehensive and well-managed plan must be drawn up quickly to render all possible assistance to this vulnerable segment. Given the experience of recent years, it is clear that climate change has come to stay and coping mechanisms for victims of natural calamities, especially women and children, must be put in place.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2022

Geopolitical chessboard

Javid Husain 

Published September 1, 2022 

MOMENTOUS developments spearheaded by China’s dramatic rise, growing Sino-US rivalry, an assertive Russia, and the emergence of new centres of power in Asia, Africa and Latin America are reshaping the global geopolitical chessboard. These developments portend the advent of a multipolar world in place of the bipolar world marked by US-USSR rivalry during the Cold War and the relatively brief period of US unipolarity after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

It is evident that as China and other emerging economies in Asia catch up with the Western world in terms of economic and technological strength and military power, the centre of gravity of global geopolitics will shift to Asia. The next two to three decades would witness this transition. A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2017 forecast that by 2050 China at a predicted $49,853 billion will account for 20 per cent of the world GDP. Both China and India ($28,021bn) will be the first and the third largest economies in the world with the US relegated to second position. Out of the 32 largest economies in the world, it is predicted that 12 will be from Asia with a cumulative GDP accounting for 44pc of the world GDP. The share of the GDP of the US and EU in world GDP will be reduced.

With the increase in economic strength, Asian countries’ military power is also likely to witness rapid growth. It is expected, for instance, that China’s military expenditure would exceed that of the US by 2035, posing a serious challenge to American supremacy in both the economic and military spheres. Other countries such as India are likely to follow suit, thus fuelling regional disputes. It follows therefore that the Indo-Pacific region will be the main arena for competition for global supremacy and regional hegemony, leading to growing tensions and localised conflicts in the area, especially in the East China and South China Seas.

The convergence of the interests of the US and India in containing the expansion of China’s power and influence will strengthen their strategic partnership pushing Pakistan closer to China to maintain a strategic balance in South Asia. One can therefore anticipate growing tensions between China and India, on the one hand, and between India and Pakistan, on the other. US-China rivalry will also lead to growing competition between the two countries for influence in Africa and Latin America.



Policymakers here often misread the foreign landscape.

As the Ukraine conflict shows, an assertive Russia will flex its muscles in the years to come to block Nato’s eastward expansion and to strengthen its security in its near abroad, especially the Caucasus. Growing tensions between the West and Russia have already strengthened strategic cooperation between Moscow and Beijing and the process is likely to continue in the foreseeable future.

Geopolitics is a brutal game played by nations for power and influence in pursuit of their perceived national interests. This power play is cloaked in moral and legal arguments wherever possible to make it palatable to domestic and foreign audiences. In the modern world, economic strength and scientific and technological advancement are the most important ingredients of national power and provide the base for the development of military power.

Unfortunately, Pakistan’s policymakers have often misunderstood the play of geopolitical forces at the global and regional levels and ignored the dictates of realpolitik to the detriment of national security and economic interests. We have overemphasised the military dimension of security at the expense of the economic one instead of pursuing a comprehensive appro­ach to national security with due emphasis on its po­­litical, econo­m­­ic, military and diplomatic aspects.

The pursuit of overly ambitious foreign policy goals and the preponderant role of the security establishment in our polity have impoverished us economically, endangered our national security, and led us to the present stage of strategic exhaustion marked by slow economic growth, widespread poverty, political instability, and overdependence on foreign doles for economic survival. Our India and Kashmir policies, in particular, lack realism and suffer from strategic confusion.

It is imperative that we anchor our foreign and security policies in sound strategic realities at the global and regional levels. Further, we need to reorient our external policies gradually towards Asian countries in view of their growing importance. Above all, we must build up our national power, especially economic and technological strength, instead of relying on foreign crutches or merely on legal and moral arguments.

The writer is a retired ambassador and author of Pakistan and a World in Disorder — A Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century.

javid.husain@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2022

Pakistan's history of disasters and the lessons we fail to learn

All hazards are natural and all disasters a result of unjust anthropogenic interactions with nature.

Mansoor Raza 

DAWN.COM

Published August 31, 2022

LONG READ

It is now common wisdom that all hazards are natural and all disasters a result of unjust anthropogenic interactions with nature.

Though the most recent flooding is different in nature compared to the one in 2010 — the latter was a flash flood while the current is a riverine flood — in both cases, it can be argued that the damage caused by both disasters is the outcome of changes in demography as well as ill-advised development policies across Pakistan.

Some of the more immediate outcomes of the latest disaster will be felt in the form of displacement, rise in illiteracy, unemployment, health crises, water and food scarcity, infrastructure damages, loss of human lives, destruction of crops, livestock losses, water-borne diseases, outward migration to cities and loss of social capital.

Faced with these multi-faceted challenges in such a short period of time, humanitarian and relief agencies must act and adapt rapidly to mitigate the problems faced by the millions of people who have been impacted in recent weeks. But are we ready to do so? Have we learnt any lessons from our long history of disasters?
Pakistan and disasters

Pakistan is vulnerable to most natural hazards. It is prone to floods, earthquakes, droughts and cyclone storms. It is prone to famines and heavy monsoons. And let’s not forget the other kinds of disasters that its inhabitants inflict upon each other — the scourge of terrorism.

Over the past 17 years, Pakistan has witnessed three major crises — before the current one — that have cumulatively impacted almost 28 million residents. While the nature and scale of these crises were different, two of them were caused by natural hazards — the 2005 earthquake, which impacted 3.5 million people and the 2010 floods that affected more than 20 million people.

A third disaster, born out of the evil machinations of the humankind, was the 2008-2010 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) crisis. This was triggered by an internal conflict and displaced almost 4.2 million people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and what were then known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

As per media reports, 89 per cent of the people who were displaced chose not to stay in refugee camps arranged by the government. The remaining were housed in camps located in Swabi, Mardan Charsadda, Nowshera, Kohat and Peshawar. Almost 50pc of the IDPs were children and 90pc had lost all their assets (including livestock, crops etc).

But for the sake of brevity and the constraints of space on this platform, let us focus our thoughts on natural hazards that may not have turned into disasters. Both the super floods —the one is 2010 in general and the most recent one in particular — did not strike Pakistan in a single day; rather, they built up over several weeks.

For instance, in 2010, the flood started from Balochistan from July 22, 2010, and then within a span of one and half months, the gushing waters had inundated several towns and villages of Sindh. This provided ample time to the Sindh and Punjab governments to ready themselves for the impending disaster and ensure they had enough resources to mitigate any crisis.

It was almost déjà vu in 2022 — and yet, no lessons had been learnt. After all, disaster management is more about preparedness than response.

A similar script was witnessed in the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake when the falling debris, unauthorised construction, change of land use and dwellings in the hazardous zone converted the hazard into a disaster of biblical proportions.

Media reports following the earthquake put the death toll anywhere between 87,000 and over 100,000. Another 138,000 were injured and over 3.5 million rendered homeless.

According to official statistics, the deceased included over 19,000 children — the majority due to collapse of school buildings. The quake itself damaged over 780,000 buildings, including 17,000 schools and several hospitals. Around 250,000 livestock also perished.
Floods … again … and again

According to the Federal Flood Commission, Pakistan has witnessed 28 super riverine floods in its 75-year history. The first recorded super flood was witnessed in 1950, followed by 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1995 and then every year since 2010 — which also saw the worst flood in the country’s history. These floods collectively affected 616,558 square kilometres of land, snatched 13,262 precious human lives and caused losses worth over Rs39 billion to the national economy.






The area compromising modern day Sindh, in particular, has a long history of recurring riverine floods. In the 19th and 20th centuries, floods hit the province’s geographical territory at least18 times.

Data is not available for the years of 1882, 1887, 1903, 1914, 1917, 1921, 1930 and 1948. In 1973 alone, however, 259,586 acres of crops were affected in eight districts — Jacobabad, Sukkar, Nawabshah, Khairpur Mirs, Larkana, Hyderabad, Dadu and Thatta.

Two years later, another super flood impacted 1.13 million people. The next year, heavy rains caused yet another flood and around 28,260 villages were affected, 3,276 people displaced, 9,087 cattle were lost and 99 people lost their lives. Similar stories of damages have been reported in 1978, 1992, 1994 and 1995.

What is particularly interesting to note is that though the province has a centuries-old history of natural disasters, successive post-independence governments have largely have been less responsive to this reoccurring phenomenon and failed to act in a proactive manner.

Flash floods — which are quite sudden and are often caused by a cloud burst in the mountains — are also not new to the country.

On July 23, 2001, for example, record monsoon rains lashed Islamabad, as well as the districts of Mansehra, Rawalpindi and other towns and cities across Pakistan. The resultant flooding killed at least 350 people and injured another 150.

Some 125 people remain missing to this day and at least 1,500 families were rendered homeless. The most seriously affected area was the Mansehra district, where more than 200 people were killed and around 1,000 houses destroyed. A large number of cattle in this largely rural area also perished, and parts of the roadway also collapsed, making it difficult to reach those in dire need of assistance.

Apart from Mansehra, the other affected areas were Dader (Shinkiari) and Buner districts, which were struck by flood waters and landslides. At Dadar Qadeem, at least 200 homes collapsed or were completely washed away.

Narrated below are the some of the reasons — only tip of the iceberg — that transform a traditional hazard of floods into a horrendous disaster as seen in recent times.
Population explosion

In 1981, the country had a population of 84.25 million, which jumped to 207.7 million within a span of 36 years — an addition of 127.2m (or 3.53m per annum). The country is passing through the third stage of demographic transitions, where both the birth and death rates are declining.


There is also a gender component associated to demography, particularly in Pakistan, where the female population growth rate is higher than males.

The total population of women in 1951 stood at 15.5 million (46.22pc), whereas in 1998 it had moved up to 47.1m (48pc). The intercensal increase in 47 years, meanwhile, stood at a whopping 302.36pc.

The 2017 census recorded a female population of 101.3 million — 48.7pc of the total population. Notwithstanding the gendered aspect of this population growth — which we will pick up on a little later — this phenomenal rise is compelled to utilise the natural resources beyond their carrying capacity, thus challenging the notion of sustainability.
Development policies

In his seminal work that correlates Pakistan’s development policies and its environmental issues, The Environmental Repercussions of Development in Pakistan, Arif Hasan along with the late journalist Amenah Azam Ali, states that development brought about by the colonial regime in India had four main objectives:Exploit existing natural resources to serve the needs of industrialisation in Britain

Increase agricultural production in response to the demands of industry and domestic consumers in Britain

Prevent the development of an indigenous industrial sector in India, and limit or destroy existing industrial activity

Increase the revenues of the empire

After independence, the Government of Pakistan continued most of these policies as a result of which a large percentage of natural resources, such as forests, lakes and mines, were taken over from the old feudal order and local communities and became the property of the state, thus making their large-scale commercial exploitation possible.

One example of deforestation would substantiate this argument. Around 4.91pc of Pakistan’s land is covered in forest — among the lowest in the region.

The percentage of Pakistan’s forest area is, however, not without contestation, with the figure varying between 2.2pc and 5.1pc. What is important to remember is that trees along the land-water borders serve as the first line of defence against any incoming water streams.

Besides deforestation, another major cause of flooding is the lack of regular maintenance of canals and bunds, which in turn reduces their carrying capacity and causes water spills onto the adjourning lands.

Recent media reports and video footages from across the country have highlighted the instability of various bunds. A similar situation was witnessed in the 2010 floods, where in Sindh alone, there were several breaches due to the enormous pressure of gushing waters.

In many cases, the roads and commercial infrastructure developed over the last 30 years is less sensitive to the traditional pathways of water flow — blocking it and devising alternative flows creates a back pressure effect — resulting in flooding of the adjoining settlements. Similarly, encroachments on the mouth of the river outlets in the southern parts of the country has reduced the water flow which again results in flooding.

The colonial masters never allowed human settlements on katcha lands [riverbeds] as these are primarily meant for the overflow and residual water by the Indus during the monsoon floods. The post-flood alluvial soil, being rich in nutrients, acts as a natural fertiliser for the crops, so the use of katcha land was primarily related to agricultural purposes. The land is now dotted with commercial establishments and hamlets, which are the first to be inundated every time it floods.

Relevant observations

Based on 13 years of experience on disaster management and its related issues, here are some of my observations on the current scenario for a comparative outlook with the previous calamities:There are marked differences in the pattern of occurrence of disasters — their frequency, typology, and location: frequency has increased manifold, intensity has increased and spatial distribution of impact is wider

More people are affected; there are more deaths, displacement and damage to property
The effects of a single disaster can be felt across political boundaries

More people in high-risk areas prone to natural hazards, and development plans are increasingly failing to tackle this problem

Expenditure on reactive mode of disaster management (in relief and rehabilitation) has increased greatly

Countries in the subcontinent show wide disparities in terms of how the issues of disasters are addressed, though the impact of any disaster does not respect the political boundaries — the smog in eastern and western Punjab is a case in point.
Disaster management — the approaches

The current disaster management regime in Pakistan has its roots in the response to the 2005 earthquake which involved the private sector, civil society and government institutions. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Pakistani government created institutions responsible for disaster preparedness and response at the national, provincial, and local levels.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was meant to be responsible for policy-making and coordination at the national level. At the provincial level, the respective Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs) were mandated to set up a system that would immediately spring into action in the aftermath of disasters and calamities — whether natural, man-induced, or accidents.

The current thinking on disasters and their management skills falls into two main paradigms — the conventional and the alternative.

The former is in turn influenced by natural science and applied sciences approaches. The natural science approach equates hazards and hazardous events and also perceives disasters as synonymous with hazards. It emphasises research into geophysical and hydro-meteorological processes. Disaster management activities focus on monitoring of hazards and prediction of hazardous events.

The applied science approach emphasises documenting and analysing losses and damages associated with hazardous events. It determines the magnitude of a disaster in relation to the magnitude of the losses incurred. Initiatives influenced by this approach focus on research into the exposure and resistance of physical structures.

In contrast, the alternative paradigm is based on a combination of social science and the holistic approach. The social science approach brings vulnerability into the disaster management discourse.

It links disaster to vulnerability, which is a degree of the lack of capacity of households, communities and societies to absorb the impact of hazardous events and recover from them. This approach maintains clearly that hazards are natural but disasters are not. It also shows that the magnitude of a disaster is related to differential vulnerability between and within communities. Differences in age, gender, caste and class are among the factors making different groups of people more or less vulnerable to disasters.

The holistic approach is an important constituent of the alternative paradigm. It maintains that disasters are closely related to unsustainable development. It maintains that risk scenarios are combinations of capacities, vulnerabilities, losses and hazards. The holistic approach regards disasters as socio-economic hazards.
Role of media

Experience shows that the media has a very important role to play not only during, but also in the pre- and post- phases of disasters. It is also a well-established fact that mass communication systems organise themselves under the disciplines of the market.

They produce and manufacture news items, articles, editorials, features and so on and package them in a way that it creates a sustainable market among a large and growing audience. The masses for the mass media are a market. Information becomes a commodity and readers or viewers become information consumers.

From the normative perspectives, it can be argued that the media has to act as a public interest institution by putting forward public concerns and interest. The media’s convergence with disaster management efforts needs to be grounded in initiatives to inform educate and empower communities with the relevant knowledge for influencing public action and policy towards disaster preparedness and mitigation.
Gender issues

Various studies have found that women account for more than half of the 200 million people annually affected by disasters across the globe annually. The degree of vulnerability to disasters varies according to socio-economic influences.

Gender is a significant factor among these, with the majority of the gender-related disparity in the experience of disasters arising from the different roles and responsibilities men and women undertake in their day-to-day lives. In most South Asian societies, women have almost the entire responsibilities for maintaining the household — they are responsible for providing food and water as well as taking care of the sick and the old.

In the case of a disaster, irrespective of the losses and trauma, women still have this responsibility. Disaster managers’ lack of awareness of gender differences has resulted in insensitive and ineffective relief operations that largely bypass women’s needs and their potential to assist in mitigation and relief work.

The most important issue deserving emphasis is that contrary to popular perception, women are not helpless victims but display great strength in extreme situations. They possess skills, resilience and extensive knowledge about appropriate coping strategies, but their capacity remains largely invisible.

Operationalising the alternative paradigm

Infrastructure destruction figures provide a good sense of the long-term consequences of a catastrophe as we have seen in events as varied as the Sumatra floods, the Indian floods, Haiti earthquake and the Iran (Bam) Earthquake.

To mitigate the ongoing disaster of floods in Pakistan, the following steps must be taken on a war footing, as disaster response is all about timely action:Though there is visible donor fatigue in the global North, the international media must be tapped in to raise awareness about the scale and the intensity of the present day calamity
Foreign embassies need to be energised for targeted fund raising. They need to be made accountable against the set targets
In the same vein, it is suggested that the funds collected for the Dam Fund be released for relief and rehabilitation
All hazard mappings by various organisations need to be in the public domain
Simultaneously, in the flood-affected areas, district level teams must be made operational for needs assessment and identification of would-be beneficiaries
In the floods of 1973, the administrative apparatus was agile and responded efficiently to the catastrophe. In the 2005 earthquake and the 2010 floods, civil society played an instrumental role. For genuine and not-so-genuine reasons, by 2022, both the arms of the disaster management regime have lost their zeal. It’s necessary to provide the humanitarian sector enough autonomous space so it can play its due role
Helicopter operations and sorties need to be made operational without any delay
Instead of tents, roofing kits (bamboos, tarpaulin, ropes) must be procured from local sources and from neighbouring countries to provide temporary shelters to the displaced
High power water trash pumps need to be transported to the sites where water remains stagnant
Gender-segregated raised platforms need to be constructed immediately as reports of more riverine floods are making the news to meet the eventuality
Meanwhile, the NDMA needs to facilitate respective PDMAs for a comprehensive, compact, composite and a consented rehabilitation plan
Above all, land use plans of the affected areas need to revisited and guarded from all violations. That will protect the affected population in the long term form the nature’s wrath. The flash floods’ path ways need to be cleared of all encroachments
The relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction enterprises need to respect the local ecological format
Women play a significant role in all stages of disaster and climate risk management. Gender specific requirements need to be given priority and care needs to be provided to the care givers
Market forces have the tendency to capitalise and make profits on a disaster and its destruction. The sudden rise in prices of tents is a case in point. This vulture mindset needs to be reined in through legislation and administrative measures

If history can be a guide here, the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction will take a minimum period of three years. A lot of civil society veterans are of the opinion that if the Economic Affairs Division and other administrative setups can ease their procedural requirements from the civil society organisations, it would accrue to the benefit of the people of Pakistan.
The need of the hour

The high population growth has put tremendous pressure on the resources of the region. The 90s were characterised, in particular, by declining public expenditures on the provision of social services, such as health and education, due to the increasing number of people in South Asia. This phenomenon of population growth has taken its toll on natural resources as well, which is now working against intergenerational justice and is bound to invite the wrath of nature.

The development mindset of the planners is, at best, insensitive towards their environmental obligations and treats the ecology as a mere commodity. The market-based economy does not account for the cost of ecological destruction and the natural habitats are taken for granted.

On the other hand, a shift in paradigm is needed from a reactive to a proactive mode of disaster management to alleviate the sufferings of the community. The dominant approach to dealing with disasters, which offers no space for community-based initiatives — since it sees communities/victims, as part of the problem for which solutions need to be worked out — is not very appealing.

There is, therefore, an urgent need for a marked shift in this paradigm. A middle- and long term community-based disaster preparation enterprise is the best response. This is what history teaches us. This is what we must heed, lest history continues to repeat itself.

Header video: An aerial view of flood affected areas in DI Khan in August 2022. — Video courtesy: KP CM House

The author is a PhD scholar, peripatetic, Karachi-based academic and board member of the Urban Resource Centre (URC), Karachi. He can be reached at mansooraza@gmail.com

15 years on, officials responsible for Shershah bridge collapse in Karachi evade justice
Imtiaz Ali Published September 1, 2022

Rescue workers gather at the site of the collapsed Shershah bridge 

in this file picture taken on Sept 1, 2007.—Fahim Siddiqi / White Star

KARACHI: Despite passing 15 years to the collapse of a major portion of the Shershah bridge, multiple probes initiated by the police, communication ministry as well as the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have failed to yield any positive result and provide justice to the families of six persons who were killed in the incident on Sept 1, 2007.

While a manslaughter case was registered on April 7, 2010 on the directives of the Supreme Court in which the accused were acquitted by a sessions court in 2012, another FIR was lodged by the FIA in April this year against a former chairman of the National Highway Authority (NHA), a director of a textile mill and three others pertaining to the collapse of Shershah Bridge.However, despite registration of the FIR, the FIA Agency has so far failed to take action against any of the nominated suspects.

Sources linked the registration of the case and then the stalled investigations with the political developments in the country that saw the change of the government and leadership at various law enforcement agencies.

A senior FIA official, who is familiar with the case, told Dawn that the nominated suspects had neither joined investigations nor approached any court for bail before arrest.


FIA makes no arrest despite lodging FIR in April against ex-NHA head, four others

Official papers reviewed by Dawn suggested that an FIR (15/2022) in connection with the 15-year-old incident was lodged against ex-chairman of NHA retired Major General Farrukh Javed, ex-member NHA Raja Nousherwan, ex-project director of the Karachi Northern Bypass Flyover Yousaf Barakzai, Khalid Mirza of ECIL and Naveed Mirza of the Paracha Textile Mill on the complaint of the then chairman of the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission.

The sources said the case was registered in Karachi but top FIA authorities had transferred the investigation to agency’s Islamabad office on April 29.

The official papers stated the suspects, said to be extremely influential, allegedly allowed construction of the faulty flyover despite timely warning by the experts concerned that the bridge must be demolished and redesigned correctly as inherent faults could not be solved through remedial measures.

The FIA said that ‘faulty design’ of the bridge was made to protect land of the textile mills.

The official papers revealed that the said suspects having “criminal intentions and common objective by means of fraud knowingly/deliberately” soon after realising the inherent fault in the design of KNBP wilfully constructed the defected flyover on the small piece of land of Paracha Textile Mill for its protection.

The FIA mentioned that M/s ECIL Pvt Ltd got prepared a ‘faulty’ design and NHA insisted on construction of the bridge on a small piece of land although more land was required for construction of safe bridge. “Due to faulty design, ill-conceived structure and criminal negligence of the said accused persons, the bridge collapsed.”

The FIA came to the conclusion that the accused persons committed criminal negligence and caused wrongful monetary losses of over Rs427 million to the NHA and corresponding wrongful gain to ECIL and Paracha Textile Mill and their act constituted the commission of offences under section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947.

Chronology of the events showed that the bridge was formally inaugurated by then president Gen Pervez Musharraf on Aug 6, 2007, which collapsed within a month i.e. on Sept 1, 2007.

The Supreme Court had taken suo motu notice of the incident in 2010, and directed the Sindh police to register an FIR and also take action against officials responsible for not registering the case immediately at time when the incident took place.

Subsequently, the SITE-B police registered the case on the order of the apex court after a lapse of two years and seven months in April 2010. A final charge sheet was submitted and charges were framed against the accused in the same year.

However, a supplementary charge sheet was submitted by the then DIG-Investigation Iftikhar Husain Tarrar, which placed all the accused in the Column-2 of the charge sheet with blue ink, not sending them for trial. Thus, the accused were acquitted by a court in 2012.

However, in 2015, a three-member SC bench took up this matter on an appeal and noted with deep regret that “despite lapse of almost seven years from the date of collapse of the bridge and almost four years from the date of interim order of this court, nothing has been brought on record to show any legal process that was initiated per direction of this court culminated into its logical conclusion”.

As the apex court did not absolve any of the private respondents or any other person charged with professional incompetence, criminal neglect and or breach of public duty, then chairman PM Inspection Commission Islamabad retired Lt Col Saifuddin Qureshi submitted a complaint before the FIA on June 10, 2016 to initiate an inquiry into the Shershah bridge collapse.

The Corporate Crime Circle of the FIA-Karachi registered the FIR against five persons on April 12, 2022 after conducting a thorough inquiry into the incident.

However, the investigation of the case was transferred from Karachi to Islamabad on April 29.

NED professors’ inquiry

A team of senior professors of the NED University of Engineering and Technology along with other experts had conducted an inquiry on the orders of the then prime minister. The then chairman of Department of Civil Engineering and current Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Sarosh Hashmat Lodi told FIA investigators that they had come to the conclusion that ‘the reason of the physical collapse was indeed an implementation of ill-conceived structural system and design thereof. However, notwithstanding the physical collapse due to faulty structure design, the criminal neglect on the part of NHA in discharging its duties fiducially shall, however, remain the root cause of collapse of the Paracha Chowk Box Girder Bridge, as the NHA ignominiously failed to ensure implementation of the project’, according to the official papers.

No third party opinion sought when defects became apparent

The FIA said the construction of the Shershah bridge started in year 2003 and ‘abnormal behaviour/defects of the bridge’ were observed in year 2006 and the work on the bridge was stopped.

ECIL designing firm visited the site along with company director Khalid Mirza. Subsequently, NHA Islamabad GM Design Asim Amin, and Iqbal-ul-Haq, a hired consultant of the NHA, visited the site as well.

They met with Ms Majida, the design engineer of ECIL, who informed them that the ‘record pertaining to design calculation has been misplaced and not available with them’.

The NHA consultant suggested to ECIL that ‘remedial measures will not likely solve the problem’.

The expert proposed to demolish and redesign the bridge correctly as ‘repairing and rehabilitation measures will waste good money’.

However, despite these warnings and suggestions, the then NHA Chairman, Maj Gen Farrukh Javed chaired a meeting in Karachi on Oct 26, 2006, which was attended by ‘all stakeholders’ and ordered National Logisitics Cell to immediately start ‘the rehabilitation work’ at Shershah Bridge. The FIA papers said that during this meeting, Mr Amin suggested to avail the expertise of Brig Dr Jamil who was serving Engineer-in-Chief Branch GHQ.

The FIA said that the accused Mr Nousherwan instead of approving the note/proposal, wrote ‘NFA’ (No Further Action) on the note sheet.

The FIA in its inquiry regretted that ‘unfortunately no third party opinion was sought and ultimately segment of Shershah Bridge collapsed’.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2022

A Russian shipping engineer who dumped 10,000 gallons of oil-polluted water off the Louisiana coast and lied to the Coast Guard has been jailed for a year and a day

sjones@insider.com (Stephen Jones) - Yesterday

A ship's engineer who dumped polluted water in the sea, then lied to Coast Guard, has been jailed.
The Russian admitted making false statements and entries in the ship's oil log, per the DoJ.

A chief engineer who deliberately let about 10,000 gallons of oil-polluted water to leak from his cargo ship has been jailed after admitting he lied to the US Coast Guard and destroying documents to cover up the incident.

Kirill Kompaniets, the chief engineer of an unnamed bulk carrier, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, and fined $5,000 for discharging oily waste and obstructing justice, according to a statement released by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday.

The incident occurred between March 13 and 14 last year when the engine room flooded during efforts to repair a problem with the discharge of clean ballast water, according to a DoJ release. The commercial vessel is registered in the Marshall Islands.

Kompaniets, a Russian national, and another unnamed engineer, then dumped the engine water overboard, without using a device intended to separate the oil, as required under pollution prevention rules, per the DoJ. They also failed to record the discharge in the Oil Record Book as required.

The incident, which happened while the ship was was anchored near the Southwest Passage off the Louisiana Coast, was first reported to Coast Guard by a crew member on social media, per the statement.

In a court filing cited by the DoJ, Kompaniets admitted to making false statements to the Coast Guard that concealed the cause of the incident.

The chief engineer also admitted to destroying printouts from the ship's computer alarm sought by the agency; entering a false record in the Oil Record Book; directing subordinates to make false statements, and to delete evidence from their mobile phones, per the DoJ.

In the factual statement filed alongside the guilty plea, Kompaniets admitted to preparing a document aimed at discrediting the whistle blower.

Alongside the prison sentence, handed out by Nannette Jolivette Brown, chief judge of the US District Court Eastern District of Louisiana, Kompaniets was ordered to serve six months of supervised release and a $200 special assessment, per the DoJ.

Kompaniets could not be contacted for comment.