A Big Challenge

Rehabilitation of thousands of flood victims, sheltering them from extreme cold is proving to be a stiff challenge

PESHAWAR: It has been almost three months since Monsoon super floods washed away buildings, trees, crops and everything else on their way from the high grounds of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Chitral, Swat and Kohistan to the plains of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. Although there are no more predictions for floods until any future rainfalls, those affected three months ago are bracing for another life-threatening challenge as the cold weather sets in and temperatures rapidly drop in most parts of Pakistan.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reportedly paid 1.872 billion rupees to the families of the persons injured and deceased in the floods, and on other relief activities. Similarly, almost two billion rupees have been released to compensate for people’s losses and damages to their properties and businesses.

According to Taimur Ali, the focal person for PDMA KP, about 35,000 claims for damages have been verified by the authority and the lists of those affected have been shared with the Bank of Khyber (BoK) for payments. “The bank has already paid 8,831 affected persons for the damages they suffered due to floods,” he informed Bol News.

“A total of 674,318 persons were displaced during the floods while 406,538 persons were evacuated and another 69,775 persons were rescued during and after the August 2022 floods. During the rescue and relief operations, 886,363 persons were provided with cooked food, while 286,224 persons received dry food. Similarly, 153,719 persons received non-food items,” PDMA focal person Taimur Ali detailed.

According to the details, the PDMA has carried out relief and aid distribution activities in 20 districts of the province while it also provided Rescue 1122 and PDMA Balochistan with relief items. “53,583 families were provided with tents, 25,051 tarpaulin sheets 28,473 blankets, 18,139 hygiene kits, 14,884 kitchen sets, 15,839 water containers, 30,630 mattresses and 1,640 life-saving jackets were also distributed in the affected areas,” Taimur Ali revealed while adding that PDMA Balochistan was provided with sets of 1,000 tents, quilts, mattresses, blankets, mosquitos nets, hygiene kits, and food packages each besides 10 de-watering systems.

Many welfare and non-governmental organisations have been trying to reach out to as many people as they can. Organisations like the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and Al Khidmat have been on the frontline in many difficult-to-reach areas.

Describing the efforts of the PRCS, its’ Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter spokesperson Zeeshan Anwar informed that in the emergency phase, the PRCS assisted almost 500,000 persons with donations from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), the German Red Cross and the Norwegian Red Cross throughout the province, including Dera Ismail Khan, Swat, Dir, Chitral, Kohistan, Peshawar and Nowshera.

“One of the most urgent needs of the people in all the flood-affected areas is the provision of clean and safe drinking water. Restoration of the water channels is a big problem in Kohistan, Kalam and Chitral. People have to walk in the hilly areas for miles to fetch clean drinking water as most water channels were washed out and the restoration work on those water channels hasn’t got much attention till now,” Zeeshan expressed.

According to the PRCS assessments, about 1,800 houses were fully or partially damaged in the floods. While 1,100 families have been assisted to date, another 700 are still waiting to get the much-needed assistance in the shelter and other basic necessities for survival.

“Provision of food and health facilities are the other major challenges. We are in the assessment phase, in which we also send medical teams to the affected areas. PRCS recently sent medical teams to Matta, Kalam and other areas in Upper Swat, Nowshera and Dera Ismail Khan. The ICRC and the Norwegian Red Cross are helping in this regard. Nowshera, D I Khan also getting medical teams. Chitral has our mobile health teams. Similarly, 2,500 food packages and cash assistance with support from the German Red Cross were provided recently in Nowshera, Swat and the remotest parts of the country in Brep valley and other parts in the Upper Chitral region near the border with Badakhshan province of Afghanistan,” Zeeshan Anwar added.

Another issue, according to the spokesperson is the duplication in the assistance process which results in some people getting all sorts of assistance more than once while others are missed out, which the spokesperson said they were working with the PDMA to resolve at the earliest.

However, social activist and educationist in Upper Swat Zubair Torwali pointed out some issues that in his view needed urgent responses from all concerned government departments and NGOs.

“Importantly the provincial government has been working on reconstructing link roads and bridges to areas that still remain inaccessible. Similarly, the federal government is working on the main Kalam-Bahrain Road. However, it seems everyone has forgotten the damaged houses of the people. Some NGOs have distributed tents but those are not fit for the cold weather. There is a dire need for the reconstruction of shelters for people. This has resulted in an increased migration with the start of the winter as people have no place to hide, they have no food and no work. But this is not just seasonal migration, many people have left the district permanently,” Zubair Torwali opined.

Torwali remarked that the people who chose to stay behind in Upper Swat were left with no choice but to cut more wood in order to fight the cold. “This has increased the burden on the forests which are fast becoming nonexistent in some places. People require more wood for burning as well as to reconstruct the link bridges as they used to in the past. The government needs to find a solution for this issue as well,” he urged.

Besides the increased risk of spread of diseases and health issues like chest infections in the winter, Zubair Torwali also emphasised the need for the provision of food and clean drinking water for those who had lost access to it.

“Similarly, people who are indirectly affected by the floods are completely ignored in the financial or other assistance. They might have their houses intact, but many lost their produce and with it their means of sustaining their families as their access to the markets was cut off during the flood. While others are looking to the government for the reconstruction of protection walls near the river in order to protect the threatened agricultural lands on the river banks,” Torwali maintained.