'Put it in container': Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif’s bizarre solution for floods; calls excess water 'blessing'

NEW DELHI: Pakistan's defence minister Khawaja Asif on Tuesday came up with a bizarre solution to tackle floods in the country's northern parts by suggesting that people store the floodwater and take it to their homes.While talking to a local news channel, Asif said that excess water should be taken as 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."They should put it somewhere, in some container. This water, 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.These remarks came as monsoon rains continue to cause severe flooding in Pakistan’s Punjab province, which is facing the biggest flood in its history.According to ARY News, cited by ANI, flooding and rains have killed 33 people, hit 2,200 villages, and forced over 700,000 residents to evacuate in Punjab province.Punjab’s senior minister Maryam Aurangzeb said at a press conference on Sunday: "This is the biggest flood in the history of the Punjab. The flood has affected two million people. It’s the first time that the three rivers — Sutlej, Chenab, and Ravi — have carried such high levels of water."Punjab, with about 150 million people, is a key farming area and Pakistan’s main wheat producer. Floods in 2022 destroyed large areas of crops in the east and south, prompting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to warn of food shortages.The National Weather Center reported that Punjab received 26.5% more monsoon rainfall between July 1 and August 27 compared with the same period last year.Pakistan’s disaster management authority said that since June 26, rain-related incidents have killed 849 people and injured 1,130 across the country.