A trail of destruction

Floods and monsoon rains are not an unusual phenomenon in our country and according to Met Office reports, these have not been exceptionally heavy this year. Despite this, they have created so much havoc that we must ponder precisely what we are doing to manage disasters and whether we have sufficient readiness and preparedness to deal with natural calamities. This is especially so since bodies, such as the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), were set up nearly a decade ago to deal with precisely such situations. The rains that have fallen across wide tracts of the country, and most badly affected Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, have already led to dozens of deaths and affected hundreds of thousands, according to the NDMA. In addition, thousands of houses have been destroyed, with Chitral as well as Gilgit-Baltistan among the worst-affected areas. The fact that infrastructure has been washed away in these areas makes it harder to carry out essential rescue and rehabilitation work. Districts in Punjab, such as Rahim Yar Khan, have also been badly hit and there are forecasts of further rains with water possibly sweeping down towards Sindh.

There are indications that the havoc caused is partly a result of man-made factors. Experts in Chitral point out that water pipes laid in the area were sub-standard and have been destroyed by the floods, leaving villages without access to clean drinking water. Similar issues have been reported in other areas and concern has also been expressed about the lack of warning to people, the lack of ability to evacuate them in time and limited awareness at the community level on what measures to take when faced with disaster. These are all factors that bodies such as the NDMA and other organisations working with it need to consider carefully. The reality is that we are a country prone to many different kinds of calamities. The fact that so many of our people live in inadequate shelters makes them all the more vulnerable to the forces of nature and it is therefore all the more necessary that we protect them better.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2015.

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