Raucous rain

The recent rains in Lahore have caused the deaths of at least eight people and injured several others

The recent rains in Lahore unleashed mayhem onto the human population and threatened the well-being of more helpless creatures. At least eight people died with several others injured. Resultant power outages and road depressions may cause more rain-related harm. Bird cages at the Lahore Zoo’s aviary became inundated with water, prompting zoo officials to move the birds to a medical facility and initiate treatment against avian disease epidemics. We are not a geographical location that receives much rainfall but we do know that when there is precipitation, heavy downpours can be expected. Thus, better preparedness on the former Punjab government’s part was expected.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif’s statements about the caretaker government’s inability to manage the rains points to his own government’s ineptness to provide sustainable infrastructures in the last five years. Mind him, the caretaker government has only been in place for approximately a month. Despite motorways being built, civil engineering reports name substandard road materials that caused craters. A shoddy sewerage system and dysfunctional water pumps were also blamed for flooding, posing serious health risks. Even the Lahore Zoo handled the situation better than his government may have, had it still been in power. The blame shifting elucidates a non-serious attitude towards improving the well-being of people and indicates a desire for popularity through exaggerated and rather facetious claims for gaining power.

For our officials, learning from the past is achieved only after several exposures to the same vulnerable situations and sometimes, never. Ostensibly, human neglect was to blame as the animals died due to preventable causes. Unfortunately, 15 individuals who lost their lives to a seasonal rainfall will go down in vain as long as the negligence of the past and future governments will continue to render citizens unsafe.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2018.

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