Natural calamities and politics

Repeated natural calamities have prompted the MMA-led NWFP government to come up with an Rs22 billion disaster management plan to minimise human and material losses caused by floods, earthquakes and other emergencies. The resource-starved province would obviously need the support of the federal government and donors to fund the project and there is no guarantee that the required funds would be readily, or belatedly, made available.

According to figures released by the provincial government, the recent flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed 210 people and caused injuries to another 158. Four among the dead were Afghan refugees settled in Dir Lower district. It completely or partially destroyed 21,977 houses and swept away 337 link roads, 76 bridges, and 167 water supply schemes. Crops on 40,000 acres of land in 14 districts were damaged and 2,500 farm animals were killed. Statistics normally don’t tell the real extent of a tragedy but they do paint a picture that is revealing. The preliminary surveys estimated the losses suffered by the public and private sectors at Rs1,025.995 million. However, the NWFP government has assessed the total losses to be around Rs2 billion.

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) too suffered human and material losses as a result of torrential rains and flash floods. The death toll was 24 and many more were injured. Standing crops and houses were damaged and infrastructural losses were substantial. The Pakistan Army mounted rescue operations in the tribal areas, particularly in Waziristan where it needs to do a lot more to win the goodwill of disaffected tribal people angered by military operations aimed at flushing out suspected foreign militants. The federal government through the NWFP governor would be expected to adequately compensate the affectees and rebuild the damaged infrastructure.

The flood losses in NWFP were huge but the provincial government has until now given Rs235.1 million only for rehabilitation of the affectees in Mardan, Dir Lower, Mansehra, Swat, Malakand Agency and other affected districts. The federal government has been far less generous. The emergency relief cell of the cabinet sent relief goods worth Rs55 million to the flood-hit districts of NWFP. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz made it to Mardan on August 13 on his third attempt after bad weather reportedly disrupted his earlier plans to visit the flood-affected city.

However, he disappointed the affectees and everybody else by giving Rs50 million only for construction of houses destroyed by floods in the NWFP. The amount is peanuts in view of the infrastructural damage caused to private property in the province. The prime minister also promised Rs50 million as a matching grant to the NWFP government for rehabilitation of the flood-damaged areas. That too is inadequate considering the fact that the provincial government lacks resources to foot the bill for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the destroyed infrastructure in the province.

The prime minister was criticised for his delayed visit to Mardan, where 45 people were killed when the Shago Pull bridge linking Hoti and Par Hoti across the Kalpani stream partially collapsed. The NWFP’s second-largest city had also suffered other damage, caused by the flooding of most of its bazaars and residential areas. He was also taken to task for giving so little for the rehabilitation of the flood-affected communities and the revival of the damaged infrastructure of the province.

In fact, the prime minister has earned the reputation of being less generous with regard to the needs of the NWFP. For example, he was accused of ignoring the losses suffered by the province due to heavy rains and snowfall last winter. The MMA politicians, particularly those belonging to the Jamaat-i-Islami, in their public meetings in the province have been vociferously criticising him for meting out step-motherly treatment to the NWFP just because it was ruled by an opposition alliance.

Jamaat-i-Islami leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad claimed more money was spent on the prime minister’s recent visit to Mardan than the amount he gave to the flood affectees. Though no figures on this count are available, there is no doubt that huge sums of money are spent when our rulers are visiting. The security costs alone are considerable, more so if President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz are on a visit in the wake of the failed assassination attempts against them.

While in Mardan, the prime minister addressed a group of those affected by the floods in the tightly-secured military premises of the Punjab Regiment Centre and had an aerial view of the collapsed bridge instead of being driven there for a closer look. It would have made a world of difference had the prime minister, or better still the president, gone to the actual spot of the disaster and interacted with the affectees and the common people. Sadly though, this vital aspect of politics has been missing from the agenda of most of our present rulers.

The floods also affected parts of the province already devastated by last October’s earthquake. Mansehra suffered huge losses in the earthquake and one of its important towns, Balakot, was wiped out. Floods have now ravaged portions of Mansehra even if the losses this time are much less. Swat had suffered minor losses in the earthquake but losses due to the floods are higher. Such natural calamities destroy livelihoods. The affected communities find it impossible to revive their means of survival without government assistance.

Though the NWFP government has now increased the amount of compensation to the dead to Rs100,000 each and to those injured to Rs50,000, it is still nothing for a family that has lost its breadwinner. Also inadequate is the compensation of Rs10,000 each for dead buffaloes and cows and Rs3,000 for goats and sheep. Shopkeepers and business people affected by the floods would be paid Rs50,000 each even though it is common knowledge that most of them suffered huge losses when their shops and businesses were flooded.

Governments are supposed to work for the welfare of the people and come to their rescue in times of emergencies. The masses expect a lot from their rulers and aren’t satisfied with the monetary allocations set aside for their needs. They are upset when it is reported in the media how ministers, public representatives and bureaucrats spend large amounts of money on their upkeep, medical bills and foreign travel.

And their frustration knows no bounds when the government fails to look after their needs in times of natural calamities and emergencies. Whether military, secular or religious, governments could only hope to win popular support by pursuing pro-people and pro-poor policies.


by subhash chandran..