fatman17
PDF THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2007
- Messages
- 32,563
- Reaction score
- 98
- Country
- Location
Enraged 20 million
Crisis brings out the best and the worst in a community. In terms of the fact that rank-and-file Pakistanis are eager to help the victims, the disaster has brought out the best in our society. In terms of systems and institutions and leadership, the floods have brought out the worst in our nation.
Three weeks after the floods struck the northern part of the country, and the impending threat downstream, no preparations were made to evacuate those going to be affected by the deluge, no camps were set up to house flood victims, no advance relief effort was organised, no arrangements for medical help put in place. And no emergency walls were built on embankments or spurs for the reduction of the ferocity of the floods to make the disaster more manageable in physical terms. This was lack of foresight, and lack of leadership and resolve, at their worst.
The most striking failure was in the development of a coordinated approach, with duties and responsibilities clearly delineated and resources evenly distributed in proportion to the tasks assigned, and with team leaders overseeing rescue and relief at the district level. Instead, this was a haphazard, disjointed, disorganised effort which reached some area and left the left the inhabitants of large tracts of other affected areas to their fate. Desperate survivors were then forced to seek assistance from the few local communities that could help. But in the process there was suffering and pain for millions of victims, and diseases spread, taking a heavy toll of life, especially among the children.
The floods have exposed the fundamental weakness of our institutions. People, with their lives in danger of being obliterated, legitimately ask: where is the state machinery in this 21st century?
There is the same lack of coordination in the relief and rehabilitation phase as in the rescue phase. Confusion reigns because priorities have not been set and sectors not assigned.
In Balochistan NGOs are not being allowed access to the relief camps and the victims. Apart from being unforgivable, this is beyond comprehension. To sacrifice provision of relief to victims at the altar of security is nonsense. We suffer from paranoia.
Aid has been received and will grow in volume in the coming days. But how best to ensure its timely delivery to the victims of floods remains a big question. Does the government even has the capacity to organise a relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction programme of the required magnitude? The answer is clearly no.
International NGOs have to be involved in a big way in relief and rehabilitation work. Multinational agencies have to be given a free hand in instituting systems that guarantee the transparency of relief-distribution. District coordinating officers have to be authorised, and empowered, to act as relief coordinators, with the relevant departments being placed completely under their control. Public representatives should be involved only sparingly, so that the relief work does not get politicised. Only then will some semblance of discipline return to the flood-relief operation.
If there were an inspired leadership, it could have helped create conditions for the transformation of the country after the disaster. A rejuvenated Pakistan could come into being. But since there is no leadership of the needed calibre, the country is drifting hopelessly. The over 20 million frustrated and despondent people affected by the flood could exercise a potentially destabilising influence on the course of history in Pakistan. In that case, the foundations of the state will weaken further, heralding a permanent and irreversible decline that will produce chaos and anarchy.
The writer is a former chief secretary of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Email: rustammohmand@hotmail .com
Crisis brings out the best and the worst in a community. In terms of the fact that rank-and-file Pakistanis are eager to help the victims, the disaster has brought out the best in our society. In terms of systems and institutions and leadership, the floods have brought out the worst in our nation.
Three weeks after the floods struck the northern part of the country, and the impending threat downstream, no preparations were made to evacuate those going to be affected by the deluge, no camps were set up to house flood victims, no advance relief effort was organised, no arrangements for medical help put in place. And no emergency walls were built on embankments or spurs for the reduction of the ferocity of the floods to make the disaster more manageable in physical terms. This was lack of foresight, and lack of leadership and resolve, at their worst.
The most striking failure was in the development of a coordinated approach, with duties and responsibilities clearly delineated and resources evenly distributed in proportion to the tasks assigned, and with team leaders overseeing rescue and relief at the district level. Instead, this was a haphazard, disjointed, disorganised effort which reached some area and left the left the inhabitants of large tracts of other affected areas to their fate. Desperate survivors were then forced to seek assistance from the few local communities that could help. But in the process there was suffering and pain for millions of victims, and diseases spread, taking a heavy toll of life, especially among the children.
The floods have exposed the fundamental weakness of our institutions. People, with their lives in danger of being obliterated, legitimately ask: where is the state machinery in this 21st century?
There is the same lack of coordination in the relief and rehabilitation phase as in the rescue phase. Confusion reigns because priorities have not been set and sectors not assigned.
In Balochistan NGOs are not being allowed access to the relief camps and the victims. Apart from being unforgivable, this is beyond comprehension. To sacrifice provision of relief to victims at the altar of security is nonsense. We suffer from paranoia.
Aid has been received and will grow in volume in the coming days. But how best to ensure its timely delivery to the victims of floods remains a big question. Does the government even has the capacity to organise a relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction programme of the required magnitude? The answer is clearly no.
International NGOs have to be involved in a big way in relief and rehabilitation work. Multinational agencies have to be given a free hand in instituting systems that guarantee the transparency of relief-distribution. District coordinating officers have to be authorised, and empowered, to act as relief coordinators, with the relevant departments being placed completely under their control. Public representatives should be involved only sparingly, so that the relief work does not get politicised. Only then will some semblance of discipline return to the flood-relief operation.
If there were an inspired leadership, it could have helped create conditions for the transformation of the country after the disaster. A rejuvenated Pakistan could come into being. But since there is no leadership of the needed calibre, the country is drifting hopelessly. The over 20 million frustrated and despondent people affected by the flood could exercise a potentially destabilising influence on the course of history in Pakistan. In that case, the foundations of the state will weaken further, heralding a permanent and irreversible decline that will produce chaos and anarchy.
The writer is a former chief secretary of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Email: rustammohmand@hotmail .com
