Local bureaucracy identified as key to flood relief

Govt needs to set up administrative units at taluka level to combat devastation caused by floods, says Arif Hasan.

KARACHI: The government needs to set up administrative units at the taluka level to combat the devastation caused by floods, suggested architect and planner Arif Hasan at a seminar titled “The floods and after”, held at the Urban Resource Centre on Wednesday.

Hasan addressed the issue of rehabilitation, particularly in Sindh. “The best way to handle relief activities would be to appoint a grade-19 officer in each taluka, who can identify local issues and engineer solutions in collaboration with relief organisations. Effective bureaucracy is the solution,” he said.

In most flood-hit areas, landmarks have disappeared, and Hasan believes that this will pose a challenge to the people trying to identify their land. For this reason, many internally displaced persons (IDPs) are planning not to return to their villages and instead hope to find employment and housing somewhere else.

Returning IDPs are likely to face issues such as water scarcity, unemployment and the unavailability of educational facilities for their children. The architect suggested that the quickest way to tackle these problems would be to install hand-pumps and tube-wells to provide water and assign local representatives to handle land disputes.

He also believed that the Engineering Council should chalk out plans for infrastructure rehabilitation and work with the government for the implementation of their plans.

Hasan identified housing as something that the government needs to take responsibility for and accomplish on its own.

“It is not a feat to be accomplished by the non-governmental organisations,” he said, adding, “How many model villages can they make?”

He believed that the construction of model villages was an inadequate solution the problem of housing, since the land acquired for such projects is not equally owned by villagers and can lead to internal strife. The architect also said that there is no shortage of land in Karachi, and it is possible for the government to build colonies of small houses in the city.

The slow and ineffective pace at which reconstruction efforts are taking place will soon takes its toll on the public, according to Hasan. “The already frustrated public’s mood could turn furious if efforts are not made to step up rehabilitation.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2010.

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��V8'Wof the member of the assembly who according to him had claimed that no arrangements were made to save Khairpur Nathan Shah from the flood.

According to Leghari, he had raised concerns when there was a flood threat but nobody paid any heed to him.

“Initially some legislators of our party did not agree to divert water to Johi canal, otherwise Khairpur Nathan Shah could have been saved,” he said.

“I diverted the water to my agricultural land in order to save other villages and all my crops have been damaged but they are still saying that I have done nothing,” said Leghari, adding, “If they do not stop criticising me, I too will have many things to highlight.”

No arrangements have been made to drain out water from Khairpur Nathan Shah and there is still four to five feet of water in the town. “I request the CM and the irrigation minister to get the water drained out,” he added.

20,000 heavy vehicles
unregistered in Sindh

Excise and Taxation Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla told the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday that more than 20,000 unregistered dumper trucks and other heavy vehicles in the province.

“An ordinance was issued during the era of (former president) Gen Ziaul Haq in 1985 under which duty on dumpers coming from Afghanistan was exempted,” said Chawla during the question-hour session.

“In case, an unregistered dumper is involved in an accident, the government will have no record about the vehicle.” He said that a summary has recently been moved to the chief minister to register dumpers in the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2010.