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Flooding in Pakistan – Heavy monsoon rains overwhelmed country's irrigation infrastructure

flooding-pakistan

Punjab, Baluchistan and Sindh regions in southern Pakistan are experiencing flood conditions similar to summer 2010. Nearly 100,000 residents had been displaced in Balochistan Province alone. Heavy monsoon rains managed to overwhelm the country's irrigation infrastructure. Southern Pakistan is crossed by a network of levees and canals which divert water from Indus River to agricultural fields.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites captured images showing part of the irrigation infrastructure west of the Indus River on September 1 and September 21, 2012.

Both images use a combination of visible and infrared light to increase contrast between water and land. Water varies in color from electric blue to navy. Vegetation is bright green, and bare ground is pink-beige. Clouds are pale blue-green and cast shadows.

The relatively pale blue of the water in the Indus River suggests that it is carrying heavy loads of sediment, a common occurrence during floods. Deep water appears to cover large stretches of land, much of it along the edges of irrigation infrastructure, which has unnaturally straight and even contours.

(Earth Observatory)

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