Damaged ecosystems magnify Asia’s killer floods

Environment experts are saying that widespread deforestation, the conversion of wetlands to agricultural land and disregard for natural drainage systems are more directly to blame for the severity of the devastating floods than climate change, reports the Pakistan-based Dawn Media Group.

“You can't just blame nature...humans have encroached on the natural flood plains,” said Ganesh Pangare, Bangkok-based regional water and wetlands coordinator with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. He stressed that investment in “natural infrastructure” was the only way to protect people from the impacts of potential climate change-induced floods.