Inadequate Assistance

Despite resources, govt officials have yet to provide relief to flood victims

Flood losses continue to rise, while government officials appear to lack the capacity or will to reach out to flood victims on a timely basis.

Some local Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have done an outstanding job of providing relief to flood victims, but despite vast financial and other resources, government officials have yet to deliver their best efforts in providing relief to flood victims.

Recently, one more death has been reported from Sindh, of a child who drowned in District Tando Allahyar, as a total of 1,725 people have died so far across the country due to floods from June 14 to October 19, according to the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) most recent report.

As per the available information, 734 men, 348 women, and 643 children have lost their lives as a result of the flooding.

Meanwhile, a total of 12,868 people have been injured due to the country’s flood devastation, including 5,409 men, 3,452 women, and 4,006 children.

In terms of deaths, Sindh has been the worst affected by the floods, with 786 people killed. This is followed by Balochistan, where 336 people have died because of the disaster.

Since June, 308 people have died in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP); 223 have died in Punjab, 48 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 23 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), and one in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

In terms of infrastructure damage caused by floods, a total length of 13,096 km of roads were affected.

According to data compiled by the NDMA and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs), a total of 2,271,523 houses have been fully or partially damaged thus far. Sindh again suffered the most damage in terms of house loss, with 1,881,008 houses either fully or partially destroyed, followed by Balochistan, which suffered 229,305 damaged houses.

A total of 91,463 houses were fully or partially damaged in KP; 67,981 houses in Punjab; 1,211 houses were damaged in GB; and 555 houses were damaged in AJK due to floods.

Similarly, floods have destroyed a total of 1,163,661 livestock in the country. Sindh has also been the worst victim in this regard, with 436,435 livestock losses reported, followed by Balochistan with 500,000 livestock losses.

In Punjab, there were 205,106 livestock losses reported, while KP reported a total of 21,328 livestock losses and AJK reported 792 livestock losses.

According to NDMA data, floods affected a total of 33.046 million people in the country, out of which, 14.56 million people were in Sindh; 9.18 million in Balochistan; 4.84 million people in Punjab; 4.35 million people in KP; 53,700 people in AJK; and a total of 51,500 people were affected in GB.

Meanwhile, according to data provided by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), a total of Rs68.99 billion has been allocated to 2.7 million flood victims, with Rs66.17 billion already distributed to 2.6 million recipients. The amount disbursed represents 96 per cent of the total amount allocated.

Furthermore, the government of Pakistan is set to announce the Rehabilitation Policy on October 24 (Monday), according to the planning ministry.

“Pakistan has emphasised the need for continued international support in the construction and rehabilitation phase, which will be formally announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on October 24,” said Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, recently at a roundtable on joint presentation in the United States.

During the recent floods, the Alkhidtmat Foundation was very proactive in providing relief to flood-affected areas in Pakistan. It has already spent Rs10 billion on relief activities, which it has raised through donations and its own resources.

While commenting on the government’s grey areas in terms of relief activities, Zahid Askari, Secretary Information, Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi, stated that the federal and provincial governments have vast resources but no one knows where they are being spent. He noted that tents and mosquito nets were recovered from the home of an MPA in Sindh, which were supposed to be used in flood relief efforts. He claimed that corruption was interfering with the distribution of relief goods to the affected.

Askari, who has been active in relief efforts, stated that Rs25,000 is being given to a flood-affected family via BISP, which is a pittance in comparison to the losses suffered by flood victims.

He argued that the government should have established a large number of tent cities to house the victims, but this has not been the case thus far.

Moreover, he stated that there are issues with the supply of meals to flood-affected people, as well as an urgent need to provide mosquito nets to them.

“It is now the government’s primary responsibility to drain standing water in flood-affected areas so that normal life can resume. The government must also establish tent cities for the affected people, either through its own resources or through tents received from abroad,” he added.

He also stated that a large number of relief goods for flood victims had been donated and that they should be distributed to flood victims without discrimination.

Askari further maintained that the Alkhidmat Foundation has a complete system in place for people to participate in relief efforts, and whereby all JI employees become members of the foundation when there is a demand for it, adding that all JI offices, in addition, would be converted into foundation offices to deal with disasters in the country.

He asserted that the foundation gave its all during an earthquake in Kashmir in 2005, as well as in relief efforts during the country’s floods in 2010. He also said that during the recent floods, the foundation worked to its full capacity to carry out relief activities in flood-affected areas.

Askari stated that NDMAs and PDMAs were supposed to work in the recent floods because they were designed for such purposes, but this is not the case at the moment.

According to the JI information secretary, an NGO cannot be an alternative to the government, but if there is a desire to do something, any milestone can be reached.