Pakistan one year after the floods.

Pakistan one year after the floods.

One year has passed since the Pakistan floods began in late July 2010, resulting from heavy monsoon rains in several regions of Pakistan.
Floodwaters inundated up to one-fifth of the country and affected 20 million people, destroying 1.6 million homes and leaving over 14 million people acutely vulnerable (Oxfam, 2011).
As people were still trying to put back together the pieces of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake the tremendous floods hit Pakistan five years after.

The floods had a catastrophic impact on people’s livelihoods. Water submerged one of the most Pakistani fertile crop land, had disastrous impact on livestock, destroyed infrastructures having huge consequences on the country’s economy.

2011 Oxfam report says that one year after the flood the situation is still precarious. Thousands of people still do not have a home and live in camps in Sindh. The Pakistan government’s response has been widely criticized for not investing more in the country’s recovery. Much of the emergency aid relief is coming from outside, keeping Pakistan highly dependent of foreign aid. As the monsoon period is coming, Pakistan is not ready to face this year’s monsoon floods and other natural disasters (Oxfam, 2011).  River embankments had not been rebuilt, leaving villages more open to flooding and people plant fewer crops as they fear that their harvest will be again destroyed (Mussadaq, 2011).
People’s lack of trust in their government does not give the incentive to people to rebuild their lives and the country’s economy, a stronger political signal and commitment must be therefore given. Pakistan’s government should start taking the lead in filling the gaps, enable reconstruction and ensure food security that foreign aid is granting.

Floods and natural disaster are inevitable but devastation driven from it is not. It is nothing new that governments in the entire world should not start acting after the catastrophe has hit but prepare in advance to respond to emergencies.
To prevent, mitigate and prepare to adverse impacts of natural hazards are part of the disaster management paradigm highly embraced by governments and international agencies since the 1970s.
Why this has not been achieved yet in developed (Hurricane Katrina mismanagement in the USA just to cite an example) and in developing countries, it is a highly upsetting question which deserves an open and an in-depth debate.


Suggested readings:
Visit BBC pictures on Pakistan http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-14289931
Water Aid, 2011, Pakistan floods: One year on and still recovering.
http://www.wateraid.org/international/about_us/newsroom/9929.asp

Sources:
Oxfam, 2011, Pakistan floods: one year on. Available at: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/2011/07/26/pakistan-floods-one-year-on/
Mussadaq M., 2011, Flood-prone areas identified: Disaster-hit areas face fresh flood threat. Available at: http://tribune.com.pk/story/210188/flood-prone-areas-identified-disaster-hit-areas-face-fresh-flood-threat/