Picking up the pieces

Frantic rescue efforts continue across the country in the aftermath of floods that have claimed over 400 lives. While Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has been the worst affected province, with large swathes of Dera Ismail Khan submerged under water, the extent of the havoc wreaked in the Punjab is now unfolding. From Rawalpindi in the north down to Multan in the south, areas are in disarray and even in the capital Islamabad six people have died as a result of torrential rain. The worst is perhaps yet to come, with experts saying that a massive flood of 900,000 cusecs will enter Sindh on Aug 3.

Natural disaster of the kind brought by the rains does not strike specific targets. The 312 milimetres of rain that fell in 36 hours came down evenly across cities, towns and villages. But as always happens in the case of such disasters, it is the poor who suffer most. In cities, those who live alongside drainage channels, such as Rawalpindi’s notorious Nullah Leh, have faced the worst threat. In Multan city authorities are considering evacuating those living alongside rivers and calling in police if required to help them do so. And in Karachi, as well, whenever there is a lot of rain, those who live along the city’s so-called rivers (they are mostly conduits for industrial effluent now) are always in the most danger. The use of force would be unfortunate. We must caution against its use and instead urge more effort to persuade people to move away voluntarily in cases where their life is under threat. Invariably, these people tend to occupy flimsy homes constructed from poor quality materials. It is homes such as these which most often collapse with many of the deaths recorded over the past few days coming as a result of roofs tumbling in or walls falling down and burying people beneath the debris. Those who live in more secure housing may face inconvenience due to rain but only rarely any genuine threat.

The issue of the quality of housing available to most people in the country needs to be considered carefully. The housing sector is one that has seen years of indifference or neglect resulting in the situation we see today. But this is something to be taken up in the future. For now there is a desperate need to carry out rescue work as efficiently and effectively as possible and to coordinate efforts between the various agencies involved in this. While the army has been active in areas of the K-P and the navy has now been called in by the Prime Minister, affected people continue to complain they have received limited assistance. Calls for more help have been coming in from Swat, Shangla and other areas. There have also been offers of help from international humanitarian agencies and governments. It may be wise to accept these, given the scale of the crisis — but what is vital is that this be done in an organised fashion so that suffering can be minimised.

It is at times such as this that the utility and capacity of organisations such as the NDMA are put to the test. The Authority was set up in the wake of the 2005 earthquake to manage other disasters as they arose. It has, since then, been called upon to tackle damage caused by cyclones, tremors, landslides, the artificial lake disaster in Hunza, the plane crash in the Margallas and all kinds of other events. The feedback from victims has not been encouraging and suggests that the very organisation tasked with dealing with natural disasters and emergencies is not all that well-prepared.  There have been repeated accounts of help arriving too late. At this point, we would also like to ask whether the NDMA ever carries out drills and exercises to test its preparedness and to ensure that its response in a real-life disaster situation will be prompt. Take for instance Japan, a country ravaged by earthquakes, that has built quake-resistant buildings and undertaken so many precautions and drills that even in the event of a major earthquake loss of life is minimal.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2010.