To the extent that any bright spot could be found in the floods that devastated much of Pakistan last year, it is that the authorities would have learned a lesson and made sure to upgrade the infrastructure in case of a repeat occurrence. That, to put it mildly, has not happened. Heavy rains in Badin, Thatta and Mirpurkhas have, once again, caused breaches in dams and canals, leading to calls for evacuations in those areas. Again, given last year’s experience, the least that could have been expected was for relief camps to be ready and functioning. Here too the government has failed. Reporters in the area have said that the camps are barely functioning and most displaced people are forced to survive in the open. As is typical in Pakistan, efforts will only be ramped up once disaster is on hand; advance preparations are never made even when the authorities should have foreknowledge of impending calamity.
The magnitude of the task facing the federal, provincial and local governments as well as aid agencies will only multiply in the coming days and weeks. Already most of the deaths attributed to the rains have been caused by gastroenteritis and that number will only rise. There is also a danger that waterborne diseases like cholera, dysentry and dengue may spread among the population. On top of that, food supplies also need to reach stranded families. The distribution of relief goods has been completely halted for the past few days because of the severity of the rains, while many people are unable to leave flooded towns because of a lack of transport.
While there can be no substitute for government action, private citizens and organisations will have to try and fill the void as best as they can. This means donating and transporting non-perishable food supplies, water and medicines to all those who have been affected. And we also have to make sure that the plight of displaced people is not forgotten once the monsoon season is over. Rehabilitation is a long process and, with the suffering from last year’s floods still continuing, the fallout of this latest tragedy needs to be minimised.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 13th, 2011.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
I just returned from a 3-day visit to the marooned villages in Badin and Thatta districts where Imran Khan Foundation is distributing essential food items to some of the needy families who have taken refuge on the road side and higher ground. Your editorial comments are most relevant and confirm that we are a nation ill-prepared to face a disaster. We saw the places selected for emergency camps submerged in water as well. Poor families are trapped in the dilapidated schools and dispensaries buildings with no access for the relief agencies to reach them. The challenge facing us is formidable. A catastrophe of such giganctic scale, which some reports say is worse than last year's mega floods in terms of loss of human life requires diverse resources, both financial and humans. Government, NGOs and international agencis need to unite for flood victims. Right, we were not prepared so we find ourselves in the midst of this huge tragedy. Now the challenge is to avert the outbreak of diseases that are well-known to follow floods--- gastroenteritis, cholerea, malaria and other water-borne diseases. I appreciate your paper's anaylitical coverage that looks beyond the newsy stuff and stimulates the need for a dialogue on the underlying and structural causes. How many floods should we have and how many lives should be washed away before we can have a national strategy for disaster management.