Learning to help ourselves

The UN has now declared that the floods that ravaged Pakistan have now affected more people than the 2004 tsunami, the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan and this year’s Haiti earthquake combined. The world, and indeed Pakistan itself, is belatedly realising how severe the flooding has been. Now it is time to match the concern with action. So far, the response, both at home and abroad, has been tepid. Pakistanis have not shown the same fervour and commitment that characterised the response to the 2005 earthquake. This could partly be explained by apathy but is far more likely due to the justifiable cynicism towards the government. Citizens do not trust the current dispensation to carry out relief efforts in a transparent and effective manner, and the initial government response to the disaster shows those fears are not baseless.

The international community, too, has not stepped up this time. The US has now said that it will provide another $20 million dollars in aid, in addition to the $35 million it had already pledged, but this amount hardly matches up to the $156 million it offered in the aftermath of the earthquake. India, meanwhile, in a sign of worsening relations between the two countries, has sent only a letter of condolence. Pakistan may need to spend over a billion dollars to recover from this disaster and will need far more help than that. To get that aid the government needs to provide a comprehensive plan for how it will use foreign aid. The first step would be a damage assessment programme in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where the rains have abated. This would allow us to present a concrete plan to foreign governments and agencies for how relief and reconstruction aid will be used.

Most importantly we need to keep in mind the maxim that charity begins at home. Pledged aid often takes a long time to arrive, as various legislatures debate and vote on foreign aid bills. It will take years for Pakistan to recover from this crisis and so any foreign aid that arrives tardily can still be put to use. For now, we have to learn to help ourselves.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2010.