In a bizarre remark amid devastating floods in Pakistan, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif suggested that people should store excess floodwater and take it to their homes, calling it a “form of blessing.”
“Now this water, someone should store it. The people who are sitting blocking the road should take it to their homes and store all this water there,” Asif said in an interview with a local news channel on Tuesday.
“They should put it somewhere, in some container. This water…we should give it the form of a blessing by storing it. For this, big dams should also be built, which may take 8–10 years to complete,” he added.
The unprecedented flooding has affected around two million people, with the Sutlej, Chenab, and Ravi rivers carrying record-high levels of water. Punjab, which is Pakistan’s most populous province and its key wheat-growing region, has been hit hard.
The National Weather Centre said Punjab received 26.5% more monsoon rainfall between July 1 and August 27 compared to last year. Pakistan’s disaster management authority reported that since June 26, rain-related incidents have killed 849 people and injured 1,130 nationwide.
The 2022 floods had already wiped out large swathes of farmland, prompting fears of food shortages, and officials are warning of similar risks this year.
