Muscat: The Wilayat of Shinas experienced unprecedented heavy rainfall over the past two days, resulting in the overflowing of wadis and a significant rise in water levels. The wilayat recorded a record 206 mm of rainfall between April 14 and 17, leading to flooding in many areas.
Shinas residents faced significant challenges in getting around due to the heavy rains and flash floods that swept through the streets, submerging roads and cars. Social media was circulated by shocking videos of the raging floods engulfing homes and businesses.
DAMAGE TO INFRASTRUCTURE
The floods caused extensive damage to infrastructure and property. Numerous homes and businesses were flooded, and some roads and bridges were damaged. The floods also caused power outages in some areas.
Many Shinas residents expressed their fear and anxiety about the floods. They said they had not witnessed such a natural disaster in a long time.
"Shinas has not seen such heavy rains in a long time," said Mohammed al Futaisi, a resident of Shinas. "The floods caused a lot of damage, submerging some properties and destroying some homes," he added.
Yousef al Abri described the experience of the wilayat's residents as one of the harshest trials. He pointed out that there is no comparison to this experience because it is a natural disaster.
Regarding the damage to his house, Al Abri said that the water level was very high in his house and they had not witnessed such weather conditions before. He added that the continuous rainfall caused cracks in the walls of the house from the inside and water seeped into the house.
For his part, Mohammed Saif said that they had not seen the wadis flowing at such a high level in Shinas. The strong flow of the wadis caused the water to enter some houses. All citizens must be careful after the rain stops and not risk entering the wadis because sometimes the wadis come with dangerous snakes from the mountains.
CALL FOR ACTION
Mohammed al Futaisi urged the government to take swift action to mitigate the risks of recurring floods in the wilayat. He called for deepening the wadis, diverting their course, and paving them with stones, especially in densely populated residential areas, to avoid such damage in the future.
Ahmed Abdullah said that Shinas floods are not just a passing event, but a wake-up call to the climate change disaster that is weighing heavily on people's daily lives. "The unprecedented water flow in the wadi paths witnessed by Shinas clearly indicates the increasing intensity of extreme weather events due to climate change," he said.
He added, "We can no longer deal with these serious events in the same way we dealt with in previous crises. What was sufficient in the past is no longer sufficient today.
"The time has come to take radical steps at the urban planning level, including old residential plans that should be reviewed and revised to ensure they meet flood safety standards, including providing adequate space for wadis to drain water without obstruction."
He said that adequate space should be allocated for wadis to drain water without encroachment or obstruction of their natural flow.
Meanwhile, government efforts continued their rescue operations in the wilayat to assist residents affected by the floods. Local authorities are also assessing the damage, repairing damaged infrastructure, and restoring electricity and communications in areas experiencing outages.
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