Season of discontent

An unpleasant monsoon coupled with flash floods has played havoc with life and property in Balochistan. The desolate province is in tatters, and human misery is a telling tale of authorities’ incompetence. There are hundreds of low-lying areas that are still submerged in rainwater, and the people remain helpless without two square meals. Rescue operations are merely window-dressing, and the only resolute force to make a difference is the succor and support from the Armed forces. While merciless seasonal changes are occurring worldwide, what compounds our situation is the sense of ad-hocism with which exigencies are addressed.

We still lack a credible format to deal with climatic disorders and the institutional set-up that we possess is lethargic and cumbersome. Thus, the state’s neglect and apathy has made the lives of millions of calamity-hit people unbearable to the core. Every downpour leaves the world’s 8^th largest metropolitan in a dilemma of its own. Lack of proper drainage and power outage plunges the city’s 30 million inhabitants in extreme bizarreness. Same is the case with other areas of the country that have not been built as per civic sense. This year the theatre of deluge was Balochistan. Reports from PDMA put the death toll over 150, with more than 14,000 houses damaged. The restive province communication and logistic links are almost severed, and flash waters have devastated the infrastructure. This destruction also saw a tragedy as the top army brass of the province lost his life in a copter crash along with five other officers and crew. They were on rescue sorties over inundated areas.

Stock-taking is the need of the hour, to devise a strategy in order to cope with such eventualities. Apart from providing instant relief to the distressed, what is needed is an inbuilt mechanism to respond to such calamities. Provision of eatables, bedding and clothing in devastated far-flung areas should take precedence over mere pronouncements of cash disbursals, which in many cases end up in scams. Rehabilitating the catastrophic localities should follow-suit on a war-footing basis.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2022.

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