By Neva Khan /Islamabad
One year ago this week, unusually heavy rains across Pakistan triggered the greatest flood this disaster-prone country has ever seen. In the months that followed, a torrent of water swept relentlessly down the country, destroying homes, schools, roads and bridges in its path. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, called it a slow tsunami. Approximately 20mn men, women and children were affected: 14mn needed emergency assistance. The floods soon claimed nearly 2,000 lives but that toll seemed destined to soar. With hundreds of thousands of families trapped by contaminated floodwaters amid hot, humid conditions, a public health disaster seemed unavoidable. The efforts of donor governments - including substantial contributions from Gulf states, the UN, international and local aid agencies, the Pakistani authorities, and countless individuals - helped to rescue hundreds of thousands of people and provide emergency aid to millions of others. A major outbreak of disease was prevented. The floodwaters eventually receded and the attention of the world’s media drifted away. Yet, the story of the floods is far from over. Some 1.6mn houses and over 10,000 schools were damaged or destroyed: more than 5mn jobs were lost. Damage to crops, irrigation systems and vital infrastructure was massive. The estimated $10bn bill for reconstruction is almost a quarter of Pakistan’s national budget. One year later, monsoon rains are triggering new floods in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Punjab, Sindh, inundating fields of crops and forcing families to move. Recovery and reconstruction from last year’s floods remain far from complete: in some areas it has barely begun. More than 800,000 families remain without proper homes and many flood defences, such as dykes and river embankments, have not been properly repaired. Villagers in some areas where Oxfam works say they are planting fewer crops than usual because they fear their harvests will be destroyed again. There are various reasons for this lack of progress. After recent constitutional changes, Pakistan’s provincial governments are now responsible for reconstruction – but they lack the necessary know-how and resources. Moreover, the UN appeal still has a $600mn shortfall for vital emergency and early recovery work, with housing projects seriously underfunded. Irshad Ahmed and her family were forced to move their home in Sindh this June. Literally. Her family dismantled their home brick by brick and moved to higher grounds. Their village was flooded last year and the family lost their wheat crops and most of their livestock. They fear that flood damage this year could be more serious. Irshad’s fields of watermelons already flooded. They were not taking any more chances.Irshad’s experiences are shared by millions of other Pakistanis. Because they are poor, live in poorly constructed homes, or face some other social or economic challenge, they remain at the mercy of the next flood, drought or earthquake. The choice is obvious: we either take steps to break this cycle, or condemn millions of men, women and children to repeat it endlessly. Inaction also means wasting money, as floods and earthquakes destroy much needed schools, roads and clinics often funded by donors from the Gulf, the US, the UK and elsewhere. Building a school once is a lot cheaper than building it two or three times.Breaking the disaster cycle means systematically building stronger schools, hospitals and other infrastructure. It means helping the Pakistani authorities to be better prepared for emergencies, to respond more effectively when disasters strike, and to strengthen the homes and livelihoods of the poorest men and women. And it means helping communities to be better prepared for when the next disaster comes, improving their ability to cope.The solutions are sometimes quite simple: for example, encouraging communities to build raised platforms for their homes, crops and livestock so that when flood waters come, their belongings remain safe and dry; setting up early warning systems and practicing emergency drills. In the Punjabi district of Layyah, where Oxfam works, villagers such as Bilquees Shafi were helped to build raised platforms where they put their possessions, including animals, when last year’s floods struck. “It’s because of the platforms we didn’t suffer losses.” she says. “Other villages didn’t have platforms and lost livestock. We store everything precious to us on these platforms.”Today, the grey clouds that darken Pakistan’s skies carry the threat of more floods. We cannot change the weather – but we can remove much of the fear and suffering that it can cause, help communities to become better able to deal with emergencies, and in the longer term, save money as we do it.
* Neva Khan is Oxfam country director, Pakistan.