Billions at stake as flood risk rises

The Express Tribune reported that satellite imagery and ground observations show flood risks along the Indus River in Sindh have not eased. SUPARCO's Landsat comparison of 1990 and 2025 images near Larkana shows the active channel has moved roughly 4.5 kilometres eastward, close to the Moria loop bund. The river now threatens a critical part of the flood protection dyke, which could fail under heavy flood flows.

Around 2,000 hectares along the left bank near Aqil and Moria have been eroded, pushing the channel perilously close to the embankment. Sediment has built up about 1,600 hectares of cultivable land on the opposite bank, though the report describes these gains as temporary. In Hyderabad, imagery shows a riparian buffer visible in 2005 was largely covered by houses and roads by 2025, leaving less room for floodwater to spread.

The Express Tribune linked the trend to 2010, when a Supreme Court-formed Flood Commission found that settlements and fish ponds inside the Tori Bund loop contributed to the breach. Water resources expert Zulfiqar Ali Halepoto said earlier master plans kept residential areas on higher ground, a practice now largely abandoned. The State Bank of Pakistan estimates a housing shortfall of 10 million units, growing by 350,000 each year.