Enhancing community engagement and resilience: Reducing the socio-economic impacts of flooding in Pakistan

Riverine floods have been recorded as the most devastating and costly natural hazard affecting the lives of numerous people around the world. Asia, the most flood affected region, accounts for nearly 50% of flood-related fatalities in the last quarter of the 20th century. In Asia alone, more than 41 million people have been affected by flooding in 2017. In addition, about 2000 people on average die due to deadly flooding each year. Recent accelerations in population growth and changes in land use patterns have increased human vulnerability to these floods. This adversely results in more losses of lives and property. Consequently, emphasis on effective water resources management is required to identify flood prone areas and control the development in these areas of high flood risk in order to effectively protect communities. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) of the United States provides an excellent framework for flood management and an affordable insurance setup to protect property and life losses resulting from frequent floods. This study aims to analyze flood losses in Pakistan and the preventive measures already in place, while also providing a blueprint for an affordable insurance program for the flood prone communities. The economic losses are significantly increasing due to poor flood management and lack of preventive measures in rural areas. Despite avoiding the continuous losses, communities tend to resort back into the floodplain areas, without considering further preventive measures in new constructions. With the aide from local governments, civic education and outreach is vital in making the communities learn and implement the basic precautionary actions. Implementation of better water management will help alleviate the detrimental effects on victims in high risk flood areas. In addition, an insurance system will also strengthen the community resilience to floods by the establishment of floodplain management and preventive measures within communities. Therefore, it is essential to put more consideration in this specific region for flood plain management and community collaboration, which in return will develop a stronger community protecting themselves of flood devastation well in time.