Natural disaster: I will fight the ‘sifarish culture’, says adviser to Chief Minister

Since 2010, more than 60% of donors have backed out.

KARACHI: Sindh is likely to witness yet another disaster in the next monsoon season, said the adviser to the chief minister, Haleem Adil Shaikh, at his first press conference after he took over the relief department. “It will be worse than before and will cause massive damage because of the intensity.”

He quoted a figure given to him by the metrological department and said that because of the climate change and Sindh being a lower riparian, it had suffered a lot in the past and a similar situation was coming up again.

“We should not wait for relief,” he said. “We have to stand up and take preventive measures ourselves.” The adviser added that he planned to visit different districts in the province to check up on how prepared the people were to face another natural disaster.

While talking about the relief efforts on Sunday, he said that they were being politicisied and he would not let anyone interfere. “President Zardari has given me full authority,” he said while talking about how in the last two floods, relief work and rehabilitation was being done on the basis of party affiliation and influence. “I will fight this ‘sirfarishi’ culture.” He added that due to the poor performance of the bureaucracy, donors had lost their trust in the system and non-governmental organisations were not initiating rehabilitation programmes.

According to the adviser, as compared to the floods in 2010, they had lost more than 60% of donor support. He insisted that it was necessary to do something now as the floods would keep plaguing Sindh till 2022.

While responding to a question on how the flood-affected people were going to make it through winter without blankets and warm clothes, he said that the rehabilitation department was dealing with it. Shaikh said that the government had distributed food and medicine worth Rs2,840 million to the people. He added that 232 watering units were provided to the irrigation department for dewatering stagnant water.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2012.