Civil society calls for urgent measures to rehabilitate flood survivors

Representatives claim that political parties have completely disregarded the victims.

KARACHI: The caretaker government must ensure rehabilitation of flood victims, stressed representatives of civil society and various humanitarian groups.

They were expressing their views at a day-long meeting aimed at Sharing notes and experiences: Three years of floods rehabilitation and beyond, organised by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler).

Highlighting the issues being faced by the flood victims, they said that almost all political parties were now focused on the upcoming elections and had completely disregarded the poor families who were in dire need of assistance.



The participants suggested that land reforms were the only way to ensure that the farmers had a fighting chance against natural disasters. The reforms must be aimed at giving the farmers pieces of cultivable land so that they may be able to earn their own livelihood, they demanded.

Noor Jahan, hailing from district Jaffarabad in Balochistan, said that many families in the area were facing starvation, with 90 per cent crops and 50 per cent livestock having been destroyed by the floods in 2010 and 2012.

This, in addition to the 521 villages that had been wiped away, the families have received no support from the government. Another representative, Pariyal Mari brought attention towards the government’s inability to restore important institutions such as hospitals and schools destroyed by the floods.

On the other hand, Roots Work Foundation representative Sartaj Abbasi stressed the need for a proper sanitation system to avoid major diseases from being spread in the rural areas.  PILER executive director Karamat Ali, while addressing the meeting, asked all representatives to face reality and take a practical approach aimed at forcing the political parties to provide relief to the vulnerable.

He shed light on many important problems afflicting the underprivileged in society and also related some of the latest incidents in which the poor had been targeted.



Sungi Development Foundation representative Dr Manzoor Ahmed stated that despite the efforts of civil society, the void was still there and growing.

He stressed the need for different organisations to re-think their roles as per the changing scenario.

The meeting also featured speeches from Zeenia Shaukat, Zulfiqar Shah, Basic Development Foundation representative Altaf Mahesar, Mustafa Gurgaiz, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) representative Mir Hassan Mari, Ali Akbar and Manzoor Ahmed among others.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2013.