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India-Pakistan

Floods and failures

2010-08-30

[Dawn] Flash floods are largely unforeseen and there is little the state machinery can do to prevent the devastation they cause.

Donations are pouring in from around the world, ordinary citizens and NGOs are lending a helping hand and Pakistan's armed forces are leading from the front in terms of rescue operations. American helicopters too are dropping food to the hungry. And where is the government in all this? It is conspicuous by its absence and total failure to cope with a situation which, at least in lower Sindh, had been on the cards for quite some time now.

Cases in point are the deadly rains and accompanying landslides that enveloped parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last month and claimed hundreds of lives. Without downplaying the severity of the tragedy, it has to be said that residents and the civil administration were caught off guard and could not cope with the sudden onslaught of nature's wrath, which was in large part linked to the massive deforestation that has taken place in the north-west in recent decades. There the government may be faulted for its policies and soft corner for the illegal timber industry but not really for a relief effort that could realistically only take place after the event. But why should Thatta be caught unawares, as this paper reported yesterday? Lower riparians in the Indus delta have known for weeks that a massive flood is on the way and it was incumbent on the Sindh and federal governments to shore up embankments and evacuate vulnerable people to safer ground well in advance.

The government's utter inability to deliver in this crisis is all too palpable. Donations are pouring in from around the world, ordinary citizens and NGOs are lending a helping hand and Pakistan's armed forces are leading from the front in terms of rescue operations. American helicopters too are dropping food to the hungry. And where is the government in all this? It is conspicuous by its absence and total failure to cope with a situation which, at least in lower Sindh, had been on the cards for quite some time now. Some questions need to be raised here. Are the authorities in Sindh simply inept or, worse, completely callous? Would an elected local government system, disbanded earlier this year, have shown more enthusiasm in helping the needy -- even if the support it extended stemmed largely from self-interest, the desire to win votes the next time round?

Having failed yet again to take care of the public at large, the government should waste no time in aiding those uprooted or rendered sick and hungry by the floods. We have seen time and again that Pakistani people are generous to a fault and quick to mobilise when their countrymen need help. The same is not true of the civilian authorities whose response is marked by a combination of lethargy and apathy that simply beggars belief. People are dying and action is needed now, not later. Then there is a peripheral danger, of people losing faith in the system. Democracy must deliver at this critical stage.

Posted by:Fred

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