‘Rising anger and resentment’ over Pakistan flood response
As more monsoon storms threaten to surge flood levels higher in the swollen beds of the Indus River in Punjab and Sindh Provinces, Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Miller writes about the “rising anger and resentment” among the Pakistani people he has met over the past 10 days.
Pakistan’s super-flood is panning out as feared, with threats multiplying as time elapses.
The slow-burn catastrophe is posing a logistical nightmare to relief agencies, still struggling to deliver food, shelter and safe drinking water to the six million people most seriously affected. Relief workers say many areas remain unreachable other than by helicopter or by boat.
“The tsunami and the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan were like a heart attack,” Mohammed Qazilbash, of Save the Children, told us ”This is like a cancer. It just keeps spreading.”
The evacuation camps
The hardest hit have been the poorest of the poor, in this country of 190 million people. There are tens of thousands of cases of potentially fatal water-borne diseases and deepening concerns of a cholera epidemic just waiting to happen.
The UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is unable to accurately assess needs because access to some areas is still proving difficult or impossible.
“Children are dying now, as we speak, because of lack of access to clean drinking water,” said Pascal Cuttat, Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Islamabad, today. The UN said there are now 36,000 cases of acute diarrhoea.
In evacuation camps visited by Channel 4 News, from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the northwest, through Punjab and in Sindh province in the south, we have seen many people sick with fever, dysentery and with festering skin infections.
Most displaced people live in makeshift encampments with no sanitation or access to safe water.
Agricultural industry in tatters
The economic impact of the floods has been huge. The World Bank says the value of ruined crops will top a billion dollars. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning of major economic harm and shortages.
Today, 200km south of Sukkur, on the River Indus in Sindh Province, we found vast areas of farmland under water, after a “bund” – a protective dike along the west bank of the river – was breached. More than 200 villages in the district of Dadu have been flooded and evacuated after the water level rose more than 12 metres.
We met local farmers returning from their submerged village by boat. They had gone back to scavenge for construction materials on the roofs of their former homes with which to build temporary lean-to’s in nearby Dadu town. They said all their crops were destroyed.
Across Pakistan, floodwaters are reported to have inundated 700,000 acres of cotton, 200,000 acres of rice and 200,000 acres of sugar cane. The chairman of Agri Forum Pakistan, Mohammed Ibrahim Mohgul, is quoted as saying that half a billion metric tonnes of wheat has been ruined and 300,000 acres of animal fodder destroyed.
As wheat and sugar prices rise, there are food security concerns about the ramifications of Pakistan – the world’s sixth most popular country and a major rice and grain exporter – being forced to import food staples.
Mr Moghul added that 100,000 heads of livestock had also been killed. The rotting carcasses of cattle remain a major contaminant to the water supply. The flood water has poisoned ground water, rendering shallow village wells unsafe.
Anger and resentment
Throughout our 10 days in Pakistan reporting on the super-flood, we have encountered rising anger and resentment from those who blame their government for mounting an inadequate response. Commentators in Pakistan say increased desperation could lead to social unrest.
Samina Ahmed, of the International Crisis Group, told Channel 4 News however that “Pakistan is a poor country. After nine years of military rule, it’s no surprise that the civilian government is struggling. They can’t deliver overnight.” The well-funded army, she said, has all the resources and has spearheaded much of the Pakistani relief effort.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, has today promised that his government will be transparent in the disbursement of relief. But the disaster has failed to win sufficient pledges from international donors to tackle the enormity of the crisis.
The United Nations has appealed for US$459 million but so far just US$195 million has been pledged. The UN Secretary General arrives in Pakistan tomorrow.
Floodwaters are receding in some areas, but further monsoon storms could bring more destruction. The National Disaster Management Agency said major peaks in the Indus River water level are expected in Punjab and Sindh next week.
In the northwest, bad weather has once again grounded the US army’s helicopter airlift to people in the Upper Swat Valley, cut-off by landslides and broken bridges. Only 3,089 people have been evacuated since the airlift started on 8 August.
The first two of the 19 extra helicopters ordered by the US Defence Secretary to deploy to Pakistan were unable to land at Ghazi Army Aviation base, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, due to persistent rain.
“We want to warn everyone that the crisis facing Pakistan is enormous,” said Mengesha Kebede, of the UN refugee agency today. ”There continues to be massive destruction as the bloated rivers flow inexorably southwards across the plains.”
There are 13 comments on this post
Yup, I’m very angry.
Angry that at a time when the UK is in the midst of unprecedented cuts in public services and we’re expected to work longer for less pension, but have to struggle to provide for our own futures because there’s no full-time work available these days, only a part-time job if you are lucky, once again we’re being expected to bail out and subsidise another corner of the world, as though we’re a bottomless pit…
Let Pakistan’s neighbours help. India is a rich country these days, isn’t it? It’s where all our work went…
I’m also tired of seeing reporters laying it on thick, clearly trying to win an award for their reports. Particularly on the BBC…
Yeah, right! As if we would be the first one to send our money to this country (who would then distribute it amongst the Islamic terrorists, the Taliban, and the Pakistani Army to plan the next attack on our cities!). You might have seen idiotic comments from the citizens of this country that dams built by India are responsible for the flood !! For the record, India has sent US$5 million which Pakistan has reluctantly accepted (apart from the food supplies, of course. I guess potatoes and tomatoes will not be used as weapons of mass destruction).
The Indus is full , people have died and will continue to die from associated disease and post trauma infection for a long time to come.
Water is the most powerful element on earth, the strength of it , the lack of it, the volumes and masses of it. What truly can we do?
A govermnet which is in-capable of looking after its people should be booted out!
They might have connections with extremism but what they are doing there is only humantarian.Also what goverment is failing to do and successing in doing is to leave victoms abondened like always and push them further towards extremism.Such a goverment should not only be blamed but also prosecuted for exposing its people to extremism.We have extremism and military take overs in the first place because of these in-capable civil leadership never do what they should be doing.They should be booted out..for the sake of peace.
If you are governing a country which has a lot of low-lying land and is vulnerable to flooding, don’t you have a fundamental responsibility to plan appropriately for that eventuality, and not rely on the international community being a soft-touch when you plead “humanitarian disaster”…?
So I think the International Community needs as much of a shake as the global banking system. The old way of doing things isn’t appropriate any more.
This issue, reluctance to help if you want to call it that, is perhaps an unforseen spin off from the global financial crisis of 2007/08, the implications of which are still playing out today and will continue to do so for many years to come…
History of Sindhu RIVER and SINDHU Sanskruti is ancient. And it goes back to vedic times. People living near those rivers are aware of those all History, facts and believes.
SINDHI is pronounced as INDUS but actually is SAPTA SINDHU RIVER. And SAPTA SINDHU Avrohan (descend from Himalaya) is not just any of Mythology but perfect science fact.
What is SAPTA SINDHU RIVER? As we count those rivers as SINDHU (INDUS) originates from west KAILASH region. And drain to Kashmir valley to PANJAB it meets with other five rivers of Panjab nnmed as RAVI, CHINAB, JELUM SATLAJ and BIYAS.
But that’s the 1+5 =6 ONLY then why SEVAN RIVERS of SAPTA SINDHU? The seventh was SARASVATI which now dried river bed as a remnant as GAGGAR HAKARA river of Rajasthan. As land area of the river bed has been uplifted and diverted the water flows to other channels. So it was SAPTA SINDHU (seven rivers).
Peoples staying on the river banks are aware of all the facts and reality and also with mythology. It has been said that the SAPTA SINDHU is a pious river and it has descended to clear all dirt and SINs to make the land pious and fertile and free of SINs and sinners.
Scientific fact is that as…
PAKISTAN FLOODS IS CAUSED BY INDIAN WEAPON PUMPING WATER INTO OUR FATHERLAND. iT IS SCIENTIFCALLY PROVEN THAT INDIAN DAM IS CATCHING AND RELEASING WATER AT ONE TIME TO KILL OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 20% OF OUR COUNTRY IS DESTROYED…WE SHOULD NUCLEAR BOMB 20% OF INDIA TO SHOW THEM HOW IT PAINS..
Hatred towards India is hard coded in to your thick skulled extremist Pakistanis , fed by a incapable system of yours that cannot help its own people but has the energy and mouth to blame India for every misfortune of Pakistan from sectarian violence between different sects to even natural disasters.
May Allah save you from your self.
As I recall, Pakistan’s nuclear tests were so much piss in a thunderstorm compared to India’s. And mobility is everything, my friend. By the time you are done loading your donkeys with the 4th of July firecrackers the Indian army will be in Islamabad complaining about being assigned to that filthy hell-hole you call your beloved Pakistan.
I read an interesting letter in the Daily Mail. This particular man felt sorry for the people of Pakistan as we all do but as he says what are their so-called Muslim brothers doing. Half of them are sitting on a sea of oil and can well afford to give as much aid as necessary.
Unfortunately Pakistan has been involved in the training of these terrorist groups and most of the major catastrophies are in these war torn and terrorist regions. It makes you wonder what God’s plan is in all of this.
proud citizen … ur such an idiot no wonder no one is coming forward to help us… our problems are our own . stop blaming india and us for all our worries.. tom u mite get piles and u will still blame india becos u think its a pain in ur ass
Me and my team is grateful to Al-mighty Allah who helped us in providing shelter to the shelter less flood affectees with the help of friends / donors / well wishers / philanthropists in Pakistan and Abroad. The project was started immediately after Eid-ul Fitr and we promised to provide shelter before Eid-ul-Azha. You will be glad to know that most of the flood affectees under “Apna Ghar Project” will celebrate this EID in their newly built houses.
Visit:
http://asifjahfloodrelief.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1093760190