Strategies for post-flood relief

Natural disasters, like the summer floods this year, occur without warning; they take communities and populations by surprise and leave a grave impact on the economy and the society. Each disaster, whether it is the earthquake that struck four years back or the recent floods, has revealed a great deal about what we are as a people and as a nation, and what we have the capacity to become.

On each occasion, we have seen heart-warming social mobilisation by every sector of society and from every corner of the country. We found the younger generation of our country motivated to assist the victim communities by collecting relief goods, raising funds, and contributing in whatever big or small way they could to the rescue operations. On many other occasions, and more so during the floods and in the ongoing reconstruction phase, our society has broken forever some of the negative myths about Pakistan. Primary among these are that we are not yet a nation and that we lack the spirit of unity and national solidarity.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in Pakistan who are directly and indirectly involved in assisting flood-affected communities without any publicity for their name, profession and business. I saw two students of Pakistani origin from the University of Edinburgh and University of Western Ontario collecting donations from here and abroad and going to far-flung areas to personally deliver food items to needy families. Similarly, students from our universities have worked in the affected areas to help victims — many are still carrying on this task since the devastation has been on a massive scale.

While we recognise the contributions of our businesses, civil society groups, youth, social activists and philanthropists, we must gratefully acknowledge the support of the international community. Their assistance, through private charities and government channels, continues to pour into the country, usually to local organisations that they find trustworthy.

There is a lot of energy and national resources available for use in the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase. However, one thing needs to be remembered in all of this. Those who reach out and help those affected by the floods should not treat them as beggars. These people, till the floods hit and destroyed their lives, were productive citizens of society and their dignity may be hurt if we treat them like beggars. Regrettably, on many occasions the delivery of relief has been done in a manner that robs the flood victims of their human dignity.

More importantly, we must take the recent natural disaster as an opportunity to engage with the communities for at least five to ten years. There are two ideas that I wish to share in this regard. First, we must take reconstruction as something holistic and more than just building houses, schools and roads. More essential elements of this approach are education, skills development and transfer of knowledge from modern agricultural practices to improving livelihood.

Second, the spirit behind building communities must be to empower the local communities. We can do this by allowing them to take decisions themselves and do things with minimal of outside assistance. Our role as community builders is that of partners on an equal basis and that of a link in the social chain of support.

The best way to build communities is to ‘own’ them, by which I mean becoming closely associated with their social development, and reconstruction is just the starting point. Our businesses, affluent families, more successful individuals, civil society organisations, and universities can adopt villages, smaller communities and even families for a longer term to aid in social development.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2010.