Tsunami threatens Pakistani coasts By Aziz Sanghur
Tsunami Threatens Pakistani Coast is a shortage documentary, produced, directed and written by Aziz Sanghur. Mr. Sanghur is a documentary film-maker from Pakistan. The documentary shows that there is a great threat to the coastal communities of Pakistan from the tsunami and Pakistani coastal areas are not capable of recovering from a disaster like the tsunami.
The Makran and Karachi coasts are extremely vulnerable to tsunamis and earthquakes due to the presence of three very active and major tectonic plates namely, the Arabian, Eurasian and Indian plates. These faults are 40 km away from Karachi, the east-west Allah Band fault passes through the city and a few smaller faults run within the city as well.
It is said that mangroves can minimize the intensity of a tsunami and a cyclone but in Karachi the number of mangroves is decreasing rapidly. It is predicted that in the future deadly tsunamis and cyclones will become a daily phenomenon in the coastal cities of South Asia like Mumbai, Dhaka, Colombo and Karachi with sea level likely to increase from 2030 and will further increase from 2100. Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia have carried out seven-line plantation of mangroves to save them from tsunami since plantation is cheaper than building mud-wall.
There have been a number of earthquake in the history of Pakistan but very few tsunamis. Every year minor to moderate earthquake occurs in the northern parts of Pakistan and Balochistan province. On 28 November 1945 at 1:56 am (local time), a massive earthquake, off Pakistan's Makran Coast generated a destructive tsunami in the Northern Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Its epicenter was at 24.5 N 63.0 E., in the northern Arabian Sea, about 100 km south of Karachi and about 87 km SSW of Churi (Balochistan), Pakistan. The earthquake was of 8.1 magnitude, major quake.
More than 4,000 people were killed along the Makran Coast of Pakistan by both the earthquake and the tsunami but most deaths were caused by the tsunami. The tsunami reached a height of 17 metre in some areas of the Makran coast and caused great damage to the entire coastal region of Pakistan. 12 to 15 m wave height was recorded in Ormara, near Gwadar.
The 2005 Kashmir earthquake was a major earthquake centered in Kashmir near the city of Muzaffarabad, affecting Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The government of Pakistan's official death toll was 75,000. The earthquake also affected countries in the surrounding region where tremors were felt in Tajikistan, western China; while officials say nearly 1,400 people also died in Indian-administered Kashmir and four people in Afghanistan. The severity of the damage caused by the earthquake is attributed to severe upthrust, coupled with poor construction. Well over US$ 5.4 billion (400 billion Pakistani rupees) in aid arrived from all around the world.
There is a nuclear power plant in Karachi that is the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) that is situated near the Paradise point of Karachi. If a tsunami and a major category-5 cyclone hits the city now then we can expect greater damage than Japanese tsunami keeping in mind the horrible infrastructure of Karachi. The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) has said that the nuclear plant is save from the tsunami and earthquake.
The Makran and Karachi coasts are extremely vulnerable to tsunamis and earthquakes due to the presence of three very active and major tectonic plates namely, the Arabian, Eurasian and Indian plates. These faults are 40 km away from Karachi, the east-west Allah Band fault passes through the city and a few smaller faults run within the city as well.
It is said that mangroves can minimize the intensity of a tsunami and a cyclone but in Karachi the number of mangroves is decreasing rapidly. It is predicted that in the future deadly tsunamis and cyclones will become a daily phenomenon in the coastal cities of South Asia like Mumbai, Dhaka, Colombo and Karachi with sea level likely to increase from 2030 and will further increase from 2100. Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia have carried out seven-line plantation of mangroves to save them from tsunami since plantation is cheaper than building mud-wall.
There have been a number of earthquake in the history of Pakistan but very few tsunamis. Every year minor to moderate earthquake occurs in the northern parts of Pakistan and Balochistan province. On 28 November 1945 at 1:56 am (local time), a massive earthquake, off Pakistan's Makran Coast generated a destructive tsunami in the Northern Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Its epicenter was at 24.5 N 63.0 E., in the northern Arabian Sea, about 100 km south of Karachi and about 87 km SSW of Churi (Balochistan), Pakistan. The earthquake was of 8.1 magnitude, major quake.
More than 4,000 people were killed along the Makran Coast of Pakistan by both the earthquake and the tsunami but most deaths were caused by the tsunami. The tsunami reached a height of 17 metre in some areas of the Makran coast and caused great damage to the entire coastal region of Pakistan. 12 to 15 m wave height was recorded in Ormara, near Gwadar.
The 2005 Kashmir earthquake was a major earthquake centered in Kashmir near the city of Muzaffarabad, affecting Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The government of Pakistan's official death toll was 75,000. The earthquake also affected countries in the surrounding region where tremors were felt in Tajikistan, western China; while officials say nearly 1,400 people also died in Indian-administered Kashmir and four people in Afghanistan. The severity of the damage caused by the earthquake is attributed to severe upthrust, coupled with poor construction. Well over US$ 5.4 billion (400 billion Pakistani rupees) in aid arrived from all around the world.
There is a nuclear power plant in Karachi that is the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) that is situated near the Paradise point of Karachi. If a tsunami and a major category-5 cyclone hits the city now then we can expect greater damage than Japanese tsunami keeping in mind the horrible infrastructure of Karachi. The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) has said that the nuclear plant is save from the tsunami and earthquake.