UK Floods, panic ensues

StevieJ

Do you not think we have enough problems without inventing them?

treliac

StevieJ wrote: »

Do you not think we have enough problems without inventing them?

Oh Stevie, thanks for bringing some reality here. I forgot this was fantasyland, for a while.

PasturesNew

I don't know much/anything about the floods in Pakistan. I know they've had some. Didn't know they were that big... not got a telly ... and hermitted myself away for the past month working hard on stuff that makes me look busy.

20 million's a lot... how many of them are there in the whole country?

Edit: 170 million it seems (source: wikipedia).

And here's a nice chart: http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:PAK&dl=en&hl=en&q=%22population+of+pakistan%22#met=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:PAK:GBR

Only 50 million or so 50 years ago!!

treliac

Google says 170,268,500.

RosieDG

Davesnave wrote: »

If you remember, a few years back, we had severe flooding in the lower Severn valley and many people had to rely on water bowsers for safe drinking water.

I seem to recall that emergency water in the supermarkets disappeared in hours and some helpful souls drained the bowsers or peed in them.

Does that answer your question?

It wasn't good for the first couple of days. It got better after that. The novelty wore off. More bowsers were brought. People stopped messing with them.

The army came to supervise giving out bottled water. The bowsers weren't for drinking water. They were for all other purposes like washing.

It happened because a water treatment plant flooded. There was no mains water for over 2 weeks.

There was an electricity substation that nearly flooded too. I hate to think what would have happened if it had. There would have been no water and no electricity. There would have been no sewerage either because it's pumped electrically.

Jonbvn

vivatifosi wrote: »

It's totally unfair, but I can't see any situation under which the UK could be as badly affected.

Entirely correct wrt flooding.

What about other natural disasters such as earthquakes? The majority of residential housing in the UK has very limited seismic resistance (trust me - something I've been involved with professionally in less fortunate areas of the world).

Sapphire

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'd argue there are four things that have been an issue in Pakistan. One of these is the extent of flooding, which is gargantuan, but the others would make the same thing happening in the UK, while awful, much bearable.

The first of these is that the parts first hit by the flood (its the same with the flooding and mudslides in Tibet) is that they are so remote. There is nowhere in the UK - floods or no floods - that inaccessible.

The second is that the response on the part of the government has been relatively poor. Not as bad as Haiti post-earthquake but poor nevertheless. I'd like to think if something similar happened in the UK, EU and NATO resources would be forthcoming, though that would depend on what is happening elsewhere in Europe, as the Netherlands would be thumped by a similar level of flooding (as cepheus's maps show if you go pan over).

The third is that houses here are better built and are more likely to be multistorey, so while people may lose much of the functionality of their house, they would generally be able to escape to higher floors (or even into lofts as happened in Katrina). There are other things we'd take for granted. I'd be able to drain down my tank without it refilling, giving me a form of drinkable water even if the local supply became contaminated. People without running water or with a rudimentary supply don't have the same luxuries, hence cholera is raising its ugly head.

The fourth is that poverty is not as endemic here. If you are poor in Pakistan and lose your house, you end up giving birth on railway platforms, or sleeping on the side of the main road (as the news storeys have shown). If you're poor in the UK, there's a good chance that the state will at least try and help you, even if you end up sleeping on the floor of a church hall miles away, you'll likely have better shelter. Starvation is less likely to result also.

It's totally unfair, but I can't see any situation under which the UK could be as badly affected.

The fifth thing is that Pakistan is hugely overpopulated, with families commonly having many children.

Perhaps they are also living in an area that cannot support so many people because of the risk of flooding? I seem to remember floods happening before in Pakistan.

vivatifosi

Jonbvn wrote: »

Entirely correct wrt flooding.

What about other natural disasters such as earthquakes? The majority of residential housing in the UK has very limited seismic resistance (trust me - something I've been involved with professionally in less fortunate areas of the world).

I've moved since, but when Buncefield exploded I lived close by. The seismic wave was only 2.something, but it was entirely air-bound so there was no ground resistance. A lot of people suffered twisted windows, blown loft hatches, mangled garage doors etc, but except in the immediate vicinity most houses held up pretty well. If the houses were less well built (as in the majority of the developing world), then they wouldn't have stood up as well. Plus if we were in a known earthquake zone (like Italy, Greece or worst still Japan), I'm sure that new building standards would reflect it.

I'm not suggesting for one minute that we couldn't be hit by a disaster, just that we would for the most part fare much better than if there was an equivalent disaster in a developing country.

JamesU

Sapphire wrote: »

The fifth thing is that Pakistan is hugely overpopulated, with families commonly having many children.

Perhaps they are also living in an area that cannot support so many people because of the risk of flooding? I seem to remember floods happening before in Pakistan.

I am not sure how you can substantiate this. The population density in Pakistan is actually lower than many other countries including those in the EU such as UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland etc

JamesU

StevieJ

Cleaver wrote: »

I love being indoors when it is tipping it down like that. I think it's a childhood thing really, you feel like a big kid just watching the rain pour down. Didn't realise it was so bad in some areas though - that's when it becomes not so thrilling.

Even better, a caravan