Pakistani Flood

There is tremendous human suffering going on in Pakistan as the result of the latest natural disaster there--the recent flood.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the flooding in Pakistan was the worst disaster he had ever seen, and urged foreign donors to speed up assistance to some 20 million people affected.

Ban Ki-moon has seen a lot of disasters. If he says it's the "worst," it is very bad.

Please consider whether you can spare a few dollars to help those so much less fortunate than ourselves.

There are many ways to contribute, including:

https://secure.savethechildren.org/...d=gp_emer_dp&gclid=CJv7sNnxu6MCFSMtswoduy5LaQ

or

text the word ?SWAT? to the number, 50555, and reply ?yes? when asked to confirm, in order to make a $10 donation to help the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

There, but for fortune, go you or I.

There is tremendous human suffering going on in Pakistan as the result of the latest natural disaster there--the recent flood.
...

There, but for fortune, go you or I.

Pakistan?s extreme floods, which have displaced 20 million people and swamped a fifth of the country, have been made far worse by decades of river mismanagement, experts say.

In Pakistan?s wide plains where the bulk of the population lives, the rivers swelled by monsoons have been confined by levees, dams, and canals, in much the same way the Mississippi River has in the United States.

On Pakistan?s glacial-fed Indus River, the British started to build a system of canals and small dams for diverting water onto fields, when Pakistan was part of their Indian colony.

Since Pakistani independence in 1947, river managers have expanded the canal system. Now, instead of the natural flow from the Himalaya in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south, the Indus is diverted, piecemeal, east or west, wherever it is needed to support farming. Such river diversion is a common sight around the world as populations and food production boom.

These contrived river boundaries and tributaries in essence prevent the Indus River Basin from holding as much water as it once did during heavy and prolonged rains.