Mismanaging a Disaster

“No country deserves this fate, but particularly not countries like Pakistan that have done almost nothing to contribute to global warming.” - UN Secretary-General António Guterres

This year the monsoon rains in Pakistan have been more than a natural annual occurrence as they have hit the country with such intensity that over half of it is inundated. The rains and subsequent flash floods have literally wreaked havoc, affecting more than 33 million and killing hundreds of people (over 1300 were dead as of 8 September, 2022). Besides, in this devastation, about 2 million houses have collapsed; almost 800 thousand cattle heads have perished; thousands of acres of cash crops have been destroyed, and thousands of kilometres of roads have also been swept away. The numbers are constantly on the rise as new areas of devastation are discovered. To put the losses in economic terms, the cost for this destruction has been initially estimated to be over $10 billion.

Given the scale of the disaster, it warrants extraordinary measures both from federal and provincial governments. However, sadly the performance of the governments has been quite abysmal as their response to the catastrophe has been grossly inadequate, uncoordinated, and ineffective. While the Balochistan government can be partly excused for its poor performance because of its scarce resources, other governments such as Sindh, Punjab and KPK have truly let their people down.

Those in northern Sindh have been left to fend for themselves. The apathy of the PPP leaders, including Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Murad Ali Shah, Manzoor Wassan and Nasir Shah has been quite evident in these days. They have failed the people of the province. Initially, they were unable to rescue the stranded individuals. Now when people are sitting under the open sky, there are little visible efforts at providing relief to them. Very few ration bags and tents have been distributed. In many cases, these items were given to the MNAs and MPAs for onward distribution but they favoured their relatives, sycophants and influential people.

The performance of other provincial governments has also been no different. The harrowing footage of five stranded men, who were reportedly brothers, being washed away by gushing flood waters in Charsadda, when a helicopter failed to arrive to their rescue, even after 4 hours of waiting should reveal the performance of the KPK government.

There were also harrowing scenes of hotels and houses being simply razed to the ground by the rushing water, like a house of cards. One person said he had stayed in one of those hotels very recently and couldn’t believe they were so flimsily built. The destruction came because the construction was right along riverbanks even on river beds. They pity is that the greedy owners and concerned authorities were never ready for such an eventuality.

The result was that thousands of people were pushed to the roads and embankments, under the open skies. They did not have access to safe drinking water and not much else to survive on. Many of them were living on what they got from charitable organisations, relatives, social workers and activists who launched campaigns to collect donations. But the aid provided by individuals and organisations was not enough and what was badly missed was the absence of the state’s efforts.

Instead of taking responsibility, the federal and provincial governments expressed their inability to cope with the crisis on their own. This forced Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to repeatedly appeal to the international community to step in and help Pakistan.