Rain is meant to be a gift of nature. Yet in Pakistan, mismanagement has turned it cataclysmic. Rainfall in Pakistan is not a result of misfortune, but the weakness lies in structural and systemic failures. It includes poor drainage systems, rapid urbanisation, illegal settlements on waterways, ineffective monitoring of building construction and corruption and lack of accountability. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) needs to be preventive, but systemic failure makes it reactive.
The consequences are awful: loss of human lives (750 this monsoon spell), economic losses, agricultural ruination and increasing poverty. For ministers touring the affected areas and discussing the wrath of climate change in studios will not work. The solution lies in long-term institutional resilience: improving drainage systems, managing urbanisation, strengthening the early warning system and enforcing building codes.
The government needs to hasten its efforts to exit this onerous recurring tragedy. Only then can rain be a blessing rather than a recurring tragedy.
Zia-ud-Din
Zhob
