Maybe we can learn from this...

The tragic loss of 19 souls, including 12 students, during last week’s floods across the Sultanate of Oman, but most severely in the wilayat of Al Mudhaibi, is one that is difficult to reconcile in any way, shape, or form. God bless and keep them all.

However, we can take some minor comfort that two positive factors emerge from the tragedy.

First, when scrutinising the news media, and social media coverage, it is absolutely apparent that the toll could have been much higher, and it is clear that only prompt action by the police and civil defence authorities, and their men and women, prevented a far greater loss of life. It appears these brave companies of heroes are called upon regularly, given the country’s flood prone wadis, and the seemingly unregulated distribution and redistribution of gravel and sand by contractors. One thing is certain in regard to geographical features and structures. Whether upstream or downstream, there are always consequences for the removal of soil or metal, or dumping of excess, each having consequences in the alteration of natural courses.

Mother Nature is an affectionate partner, but scorned, is a brutal mistress!

Secondly, a glimmer of hope must surely emerge that greater deference will be attributed to planning and resource matters, maybe even to the extent of a managed retreat, by moving vulnerable families, communities, and schools, from locations under threat from increased rainfalls. Of course there will be resistance, as tribal and ancestral lands fall into the category of being unsafe, however, even one life is one too many to lose in the name of pride. Again, faith and nature will sustain us all, but we challenge them to our cost!

Ironically, while this traumatic situation was unfolding on your doorsteps, I was taking in the consequences of the devastation wrought by Tropical Storm Gabrielle, in February 2023, when 150kmh winds and torrential rains struck, among others across the Pacific Ocean, Australia and New Zealand, the Hawkes Bay region on the East Coast of the North Island.

Complacency, with no significant storms since 1968, had allowed a culture of “it could never happen here,” to develop, with consequent lack of regional investment in flood banks and flood resources.

Eight people perished in those raging floodwaters, but hundreds were saved, being lifted from their house roofs, with no other possible rescue hope, by police, civil defence, and armed forces helicopter interventions. Power, water, and gas supplies failed almost immediately, road links were cut within minutes, and with the onset of night, more than 8000 people were forced into temporary community shelters. Initially, almost 1,100 homes were marked for demolition as being unsalvageable. All of this is redolent of the Omani situation.

The aftermath has focused on the apathy that had established itself institutionally, socially, and in local government, with significant deforestation taking place in the region’s heights, leading to the rainfall being unhindered in its downhill rush to the sea. Lack of attention to flood-banks on the plains, and over-confidence certainly also contributed to the attitude of the region towards its vulnerability. In fact, within only days, the government had ordered a review of logging industry ‘slash’ practices, where discarded branches and offcuts exacerbated the damage to property, and the restoration of forested acreage was negligible.

Interestingly too, the concept of a Hawkes Bay ‘managed retreat,’ has become an agenda item for the government’s Climate Change Adaptation Bill, and disaster response policies. Across the region a total of 10,000 properties will only be permitted to be repaired and resettled if flood protection groundworks are completed, while 700 have been ‘red-stickered’ as unsafe to rebuild or reoccupy. Again, there are similarities in Oman.

It is clear then, that the issues facing the authorities in Oman are not peculiar to the Sultanate, but are part of global responses to our treatment of the natural heritage of our planet, our inability to understand the impact of even minor changes in the natural state. We must respond more effectively to the depletion of nature’s protection, as its strength is in direct response to our care factor. We must care... more!