Friday, September 2, 2022
#FloodsInPakistan2022 #FloodsInPakistan - Fleeing responsibility
Adnan Aamir
@iAdnanAamir
Murad Ali, a 36-year-old father of five, lives in Lakhra tehsil of Lasbela district. The homes of Ali and many of his relatives have been destroyed by flood water. “Fifty houses in my neighbourhood have been damaged,” he says. To top it off, he has fallen ill on account of shortages of safe drinking water and food. He says there are no functional medical health facilities or doctors in the area. Tens of thousands of people in Balochistan have been hit by the natural calamity. Elderly people tell this scribe that they have never seen rainfall like this in Balochistan. The rain has resulted in flash floods in many areas. Lack of disaster preparedness, poor governance and corruption have aggravated the devastation. According to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), the floods have resulted in 230 deaths; another 98 people being wounded in accidents caused by the rains and floods. Almost 27,000 houses have been damaged, 710 kilometres of roads have been rendered useless; 18 bridges have collapsed. Moreover, half a million livestock have perished and crops on more than 200,000 acres have been destroyed. Almost all districts of Balochistan have been affected. The last time Balochistan experienced massive floods was in 2010. But the damage suffered then pales in comparison with the damage caused by the floods this year. Lasbela, Balochistan’s coastal district located near Karachi, has been badly hit by the floods. Roads passing through Lasbela, most prominently the Quetta-Karachi Highway, has been blocked for many. Former chief minister Jam Kamal, one of the MPAs from Lasbela, has decried the government inaction. He has been using social media to highlight the lack of relief work in Lasbela, allegedly to settle political scores. The provincial government has been severely criticised for its failure to act timely to help the populace. Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo has been criticised for his long stay in Islamabad considering the province is in a state of crisis. The PDMA has also been castigated for its failure to help those in need. By way of a response, the PDMA has banned the entry of a local journalist in its office. The journalist had criticised the performance of the PDMA in a TV interview.Rains during the early monsoon spells last month had caused flash floods in several areas and destroyed dozens of water storage dams. It soon came out that the damage was caused by poor construction quality. This was seen as an indicator of corruption in the award of construction contracts and regenerated the debate on the need to take strict measures to curb corruption in the public sector.The parliamentary opposition in Balochistan is also nowhere to be seen in this time of crisis. The BAP government has been ruling the province without a stiff opposition. It is alleged that the BNP-Mengal and the JUI are informally supporting it. The floods had started wreaking havoc in Balochistan at the beginning of August. However, most of the disaster escaped the media’s attention. Eventually, the scale of devastation was revealed on social media. This then compelled the administration to take this calamity seriously. Government institutions, federal as well as provincial, were quite slow in starting rescue and relief activities. One instance of social media working for the people in distress was the Kana Yaari singer of Coke Studio fame, Wahab Bugti. Bugti’s home was washed away by floods in his native Dera Bugti town. He was seen on social media holding his children next to the collapsed walls and flood water. The report on social media generated sympathy and calls to help him and others like him. The family was then moved to Dera Murad Jamali. He is now being taken care of, thanks to his fame and social media support. Thousands of people similarly affected by the rains and floods have not been that lucky and still await help.Voluntary groups and civil society organisations have tried to help the people in need. Almost 13,000 affected people have received some form of aid from such bodies. Social workers in many parts of Balochistan are using social media to collect donations, which they are using to help people in their areas. The informal support mechanism has been way more effective in helping people than some well-established government bodies. Qaisar Roonjha heads the Welfare Association for New Generation (WANG), a civil society organisation that has been helping the flood affected in rural areas of Lasbela. He tells The News on Sunday that his team of volunteers has been providing relief on the ground. “Along with providing relief, we have been paving the way for other relief organisations to continue their work in the area,” Roonjha says. Calls for international humanitarian bodies to help out have increased following complaints of the government failure. Under pressure, the government has agreed to host a donor conference. Given the scale of devastation, many people believe that the rehabilitation of the affected people is beyond the capacity of the provincial and federal governments.The scale of devastation in Balochistan is such that the rehabilitation is said to be beyond the governments’ capacity.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/985707-fleeing-responsibility
In Pakistan, Waterborne Diseases Surge as Floods Recede
By Munir Ahmed
In addition to those traumatized by the flooding, doctors are now treating people suffering from diarrhea, skin infections, and other waterborne ailments.Officials in Pakistan raised concern Wednesday over the spread of waterborne diseases among thousands of flood victims as waters from powerful monsoon rains began to recede in many parts of the country. Massive flooding from the rains since mid-June has killed at least 1,162 people, a phenomenon experts blame on climate change.Some doctors said initially they were seeing mostly patients traumatized by the flooding, but are now treating people suffering from diarrhea, skin infections, and other waterborne ailments in the country’s flood-hit areas. The development has forced the government to deploy additional medical teams and dispatch medicine besides providing clean drinking water to survivors, many of whom are living in tents and makeshift homes. The warning came a day after record-breaking floods prompted the United Nations to formally issue an appeal for $160 million in emergency funding to the impoverished Islamic nation, where about a million homes have been damaged or destroyed.Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, health minister in the country’s worst-affected province of Sindh, said officials have set up 4,210 medical camps in the province’s flood-hit areas to treat victims now suffering from skin and waterborne diseases, which are common during floods.The World Health Organization began aiding Pakistani authorities in their efforts to treat people injured in the rains and flooding. The agency said in a statement that it was working to increase surveillance for acute diarrhea, cholera and other communicable diseases to avoid spreading further, and is also providing medicine and medical supplies to health facilities. “WHO is working with health authorities to respond quickly and effectively on the ground,” said Dr. Palitha Mahipala, the WHO representative in Pakistan. “Our key priorities now are to ensure rapid access to essential health services to the flood-affected population, (to) strengthen and expand disease surveillance, outbreak prevention and control, and ensure robust health cluster coordination.” Authorities said waterborne diseases among flood victims are now common across the country. “Initially we received injured people, but now diarrhea is common,” said Farhad Khan, a physician in charge of a medical camp set up in the northwestern town of Charsadda. It is one of the worst flood-hit districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, where floods killed 257 people since mid-June. Pakistani authorities backed by the military, rescuers, and volunteers, have struggled to evacuate marooned people to safer places. On Wednesday, military helicopters continued evacuating flood victims and delivering food to remote regions, according to a statement released by the military. It said it has deployed at least 6,500 troops to assist in rescue and relief operations. Rescuers were also using boats to evacuate stranded people in southern Sindh province and in remote villages in eastern Punjab province, according to government officials. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a visit to the flood-hit Swat Valley promised the rehabilitation of every person displaced by the flood. In his televised comments, Sharif thanked U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres for responding to Pakistan’s request and issuing an appeal for $160 million in emergency funding to help flood victims. Guterres on Tuesday urged the world: “Let’s stop sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet by climate change.” Sharif’s visit comes days after a raging Swat River destroyed the iconic New Honeymoon Hotel in the northwestern tourist resort of Kalam. There were no casualties as tourists and staff left the hotel following government evacuation instructions, and residents in Kalam said many streets there were still flooded.Pakistan says it has received aid from some countries and others were dispatching aid, too. According to initial government estimates, the devastation caused $10 billion in damage to the economy. Kamran Bangash, a government spokesman in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said with evacuations wrapping up, officials are now focused on providing food and clean drinking water to flood victims. “We fear the outbreak of the waterborne disease in flood-hit areas,” he told The Associated Press. He said hundreds of people have contracted such illnesses in various parts of the province.“In recent weeks floodwater badly affected hundreds of thousands of people. We don’t want them to again suffer; this time due to non-availability of clean water and it can be avoided,” Bangash said. Although the rains stopped three days ago, large swaths of the country remain under water, and the main rivers, the Indus and the Swat are still swollen. The National Disaster Management Authority has warned emergency services to be on maximum alert, saying flood waters over the next 24 hours could cause further damage.
https://thediplomat.com/2022/08/in-pakistan-waterborne-diseases-surge-as-floods-recede/
‘Climate disaster of biblical proportions’: Pakistan Foreign minister warns flood damage will exceed $10 billion
Emma Graham
Pakistan’s foreign minister made an urgent call for international aid, with the death toll from historic flooding across the country expected to rise in the coming days.Already reeling from an economic crisis, flood waters have submerged over one third of the country in water, killing over 1,000 and impacting 33 million people.Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the country’s foreign minister, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy Thursday that he fears the damages from the natural disaster will exceed current estimates of $10 billion, adding that the crisis in the country is still ongoing and in the “rescue and relief phase.”
The flooding, which Bhutto Zardari told CNBC is “a climate disaster of biblical proportions,” covers over 95,000 square miles of land. Bhutto Zardari said the crisis is far from over, as “southern areas of Pakistan are still bracing themselves for the flooding to come through the rivers from the north.”
“Pakistan at this point in time, are paying in their lives and in their livelihoods for a climate disaster that is not of their making,” he said. Pakistan’s contribution to global carbon emissions is less than 1%, but it’s among the 10 most affected countries in the world by climate change.
The South Asian nation of over 220 million people reported a 27% inflation rate for August, according to government data, and was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Its currency has tanked while net foreign reserves have dwindled to just $8 billion in August, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.
Political infighting has gripped the country since April, after the ousting of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been charged under anti-terror laws by Pakistan’s police.
Food Inflation Impact
Rural areas in Pakistan have been hit the hardest by flooding, which will have a compounded impact on Pakistan’s farming industry, and ultimately the cost of food.
Bhutto Zardari told CNBC “about 80 to 90%” of Pakistan’s crops have been damaged by the floods. The International Rescue Committee report that 4 million acres of crops have been destroyed with 800,000 livestock perishing.
Prior to the disaster, food inflation in rural provinces was much higher compared to urban areas. For instance, the cost of onions in Pakistan’s urban areas increased by 89% from July 2021 to July 2022. In rural areas, that cost increase topped 100%.
The International Monetary Fund on Monday approved the release of $1.1 billion to Pakistan in special drawing rights, a part of its bailout program which began in 2019.
The money was already part of a relief program to help Pakistan stabilize its economy. Pakistan has now launched a joint appeal with the United Nations for about $160 million, which Bhutto Zardari told CNBC “is obviously a very conservative estimate about the bare minimum requirements at this moment.”
Over a million homes have been destroyed, and Bhutto Zardari added that key infrastructure like bridges, road networks, and dams have been damaged. Pakistan going forward, he says, will need “large scale reconstruction, which will require a lot of work.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/02/pakistan-warns-flood-damage-will-exceed-10-billion.html
#Pakistan - Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari thanks Saudi Arabia for continued assistance for Pakistan flood victims
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had a telephone call with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and briefed him on the magnitude of devastation caused by floods and torrential monsoon rains in Pakistan.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also thanked Saudi Arabia for its strong expression of solidarity and continued assistance to flood-affected people.
https://www.radio.gov.pk/02-09-2022/fm-bilawal-phones-saudi-counterpart-to-discuss-flood-situation
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